A Little Here, a Little There

The small things add up to build a better community

R. C. Hendrick & Son, Inc. gives back in ways that are joined with the construction trade, building from the ground up.

Contributions may go beyond notice, such as at downtown Saginaw’s riverfront Morley Park Plaza. During the summer months, R.C. Hendrick donates a trailer for the changing room for Friday Night Live entertainers. In the winter, the company contributes the scaffolds and barricades to create the boundaries for the Saginaw Spirit hockey team to showcase the annual Ice Blast event.

“They may be small things,” says Chip Hendrick, “but they all add up.”

Hendrick is the fourth-generation owner and president of one of the Great Lakes Bay Region’s most long-standing general contracting and construction management companies, founded in 1876 by Rodger Clancy Hendrick, with headquarters in western Saginaw County’s Swan Creek Township. “This is the place where our company started,” Hendrick explains. “This is the place where we all live.”

In the past, one place the company helped support its community was in the gymnasium at the former St. Stephen’s School in Saginaw, where Chip Hendrick was part of a state championship basketball team during the late 1960s. When the wall pads near the baskets needed replacement, the company made a donation.

Today, the company donates labor to maintain facilities at Saginaw Township’s Nouvel Catholic Central, the consolidated high school into which St. Stephen’s merged. Donated labor provides value in ways that can be even more important than cutting a financial check. R.C. Hendrick & Son’s 50 employees donate their time. “We are out in the community already, doing our work,” Hendrick says, “and so if we can stop by and help with a job, we will do it.”

“We do anything we can to help, whether for a non-profit organization or a K-12 school district,” Hendrick describes. For example, the annual Heritage High School homecoming parade draws thousands of spectators in Saginaw Township. How did the teenagers create such eye-catching parade floats? They did it in a heated garage provided by R.C. Hendrick.

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw sponsors Mustard Seed, a shelter for women and their children. R.C. Hendrick helps to oversee expansion plans. Plus, the CAN (Child Abuse and Neglect) Council Great Lakes Bay Region built a new same-site headquarters on North Michigan Avenue in Saginaw with the company’s assistance and guidance.

When the Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum launched plans for a “Solar Spot” pavilion, an educational demonstration in the uses and virtues of solar power and energy, R.C Hendrick raised more than $90,000 from in-kind donations for planning and construction labor.

Goodwill also extends to employees. A longtime loyal R.C. Hendrick employee was recovering from a heart attack. He looked out of his front door to see co-workers volunteering to build a wheelchair ramp. Another employee was facing Alzheimer’s, and the installation of household closet doors was a big boost, although it may seem like what the family-owned company chief describes as another “small thing.”

Hendrick’s summary is simple, stressing “We have to support our community.”