Further growth in 2012 is expected as McCarthy is currently recruiting for more than 60 additional new positions. 

“When employees own the company, as we do at McCarthy, they operate with increased motivation, and that in turn enables continued growth and expansion,” commented McCarthy President and Chief Operating Officer Derek Glanvill. “It is thanks to our culture of ownership and the dedication of our employee owners that we have been able to increase our operations this past year.”

 According to a report from Georgetown University, S ESOPs like McCarthy have been job creators even in tough economic times. While overall employment in the U.S. fell by nearly three percent in 2008, employment at surveyed private, employee-owned firms rose by nearly two percent.

 Further, according to a University of Pennsylvania study, S ESOP companies like McCarthy create not only employee motivation and success, but also $14 billion in new savings for workers each year that they otherwise would not have. This is because profits of the company flow into the ESOP (retirement) accounts of the workers. Moreover, a survey from the National Center for Employee Ownership reported that S ESOP employees can have retirement account balances three to five times higher than the average 401 (k) or other defined contribution plans. This helps to explain why S ESOP company employees can be so successful, as compared with most working Americans who—according to a recent AP poll—think they will lack enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

“Employee-owners work smarter and harder because of their commitment and investment in the business,” said Greg Klein, chairman of the board of directors of the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America. “McCarthy is a prime example of what S corporation ESOP companies can do for workers and for our economy.”

About ESCA
The Employee-Owned S Corporations of America (“ESCA”) is the Washington, DC voice for employee-owned S corporations.  ESCA’s exclusive mission is to preserve and protect S corporation ESOPs and the benefits they provide to the employees who own them.  These companies have an important story to tell policymakers about the tremendous success of the S ESOP structure in generating long-term retirement savings for working Americans and their families.  ESCA provides the vehicle and the voice for these efforts.  ESCA represents employee-owners in every state in the nation. 

About McCarthy
McCarthy (http://www.mccarthy.com/) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest American-owned commercial contractors. Headquartered in St. Louis, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.  

The new, larger hospital has a construction budget of $335 million and will initially have 261 inpatient beds but expand to 309. Plans include medical surgical, critical care, women’s/children’s (labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum rooms), behavioral health and rehab. The new hospital will be located at the intersection of Interstate 44 and Main Street in Joplin.

“We are making this commitment because it’s the right thing to do for Joplin,” said Lynn Britton, president and CEO of Mercy, which includes 30 hospitals and more than 200 outpatient facilities in a seven-state area. “The May 22 tornado devastated our community in Joplin and destroyed our hospital, but we’ve promised all along we would rebuild. We worked closely with McCarthy to break ground in January 2012.”  

McCarthy has worked with Chesterfield, Mo.-based Mercy since the disaster, arriving in Joplin just days after the massive tornado struck. McCarthy worked alongside the National Guard and volunteers around the clock to help set up a temporary 60-bed field hospital so that Mercy could re-establish medical services to the Joplin community as soon as possible. The tents have since been upgraded to insulated panels to better endure the winter. The facility is still in use and will serve patients until spring 2012, when a more secure temporary solution, a modular “component hospital,” will take its place.

“McCarthy is honored to serve as a trusted partner with Mercy throughout the years and specifically through this process,” said McCarthy Central Division President Scott Wittkop. “We were passionate about helping Mercy replace its battered building with a temporary field hospital only one week after the tornado devastated the city of Joplin.  We are just as passionate about replacing the temporary hospital with a ‘component hospital,’ and finally a bigger and better replacement hospital to serve the Joplin community.”

McCarthy has been working with Mercy planners to develop the functional program for the replacement hospital since July 2011. The architectural firms HKS, Inc. in association with Archimages, Inc. are part of the integrated team effort, with Heideman & Associates serving as the MEP Engineer. 

Mercy is accepting donations to help those affected by the tornado at Mercy Foundation for Health Innovation Joplin Relief Fund.

Mercy is the eighth largest Catholic health care system in the U.S. and serves more than 3 million people annually. Mercy includes 30 hospitals, more than 200 outpatient facilities, 38,000 co-workers and 1,500 integrated physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. For more about Mercy, visit http://www.mercy.net.

About McCarthy
Founded in 1864 and headquartered in St. Louis, Mo., McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest commercial builders in the Midwest and the largest American-based healthcare builder in the country. McCarthy has constructed more than 800 significant healthcare facilities and renovated thousands more – while consistently appearing on Modern Healthcare’s Top 5 list of leading healthcare construction management companies. McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned. More information is available on line at www.mccarthy.com.

“MAXLAB is the next step in our commitment to building energy efficiency research,” said Jimmy Stone, ORNL’s director of facilities and operations. “Updated facilities will enable us to stay in the forefront of our field, and we have the team in place to do this effectively.”

Construction of the new MAXLAB facility is supported by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is scheduled for a November 2012 completion. McCarthy is serving as construction manager-at-risk for the project along with a separate utilities upgrade project to provide mechanical and electrical services for the new lab.

“We are extremely pleased to be continuing our relationship with ORNL on the MAXLAB project and the concurrent 3000 Area Utilities project, which supports the new lab,” said McCarthy Project Director Larry VanHouten. “The purpose of this particular project certainly resonates with our builders as we are continually searching for ways to improve our processes and materials to produce better results for our clients. The research conducted in this facility will be very important to our company and the entire building industry moving forward, and we are excited to be a part of it.”

MAXLAB will be located at the corner of Bethel Valley Road and 5^th Street, east of the Building Technologies Research and Integration Center (BTRIC) whose staff will utilize the new facilities. The lab will house high bay facilities with an overhead crane for envelope system research, low bay facilities for HVAC system research, a data center and offices. The project is targeting a LEED^® Gold certification through the United States Green Building Council.

VanHouten continued, “We recently completed the Chemical and Materials Sciences Building on the ORNL campus. Since the MAXLAB is located only a block away from this previous project, we have been able to leverage this successful experience and local knowledge to streamline and enhance communication and collaboration, improving efficiencies for the whole team. Our continued focus on schedule, quality and safety on the MAXLAB project will allow McCarthy and ORNL to achieve the mutual goal of producing an exceptional research facility.”

Included with the lab facility will be two light commercial building “flexible research platforms.” These platforms allow for a fairly simple means to change just about anything about the “test buildings” to facilitate the study of building energy efficiency concepts. One research platform will be a 1,600-square-foot footprint, 3,200-square-foot, two-story facility with a low-sloped roof. The second research platform will be a 2,400-square-foot, one-story building with a sloped roof. The two research platforms will have data connections back to the data center within the main MAXLAB research building and sit on insulated concrete foundations that include in-slab heating/cooling loops, which will enable research equipment to control the temperature of the working fluid circulating in the loops in order to eliminate heat transfer between the ground and the test buildings during experiments.

Finalization of concept design, design and construction documents and construction administration are provided by Cannon Design of St. Louis. Other contributors to the project design include civil engineer Fulghum MacIndoe & Associates, Inc. and landscape architect Hedstrom Design, both of Knoxville, Tenn. McCarthy is utilizing local tradespeople for construction and is self-performing the concrete foundation and general works scope.

About Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) (www.ornl.gov) is the Department of Energy’s (DOE) (www.energy.gov) largest science and energy laboratory. Managed since April 2000 by a partnership of the University of Tennessee and Battelle, ORNL has a staff of more than 4,400 and annual funding exceeds $1.4 billion. The laboratory is home to the Spallation Neutron Source, the world’s most powerful neutron source for materials research; and Jaguar, one of the world’s fastest supercomputers. ORNL supports the DOE’s mission with expertise in six major scientific areas: neutron science, energy, high-performance computing, systems biology, materials science at the nanoscale, and national security. 

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. Founded in 1864, the firm has been building in the science and technology market for more than 50 years. The company is working on government projects totaling $2.4 billion nationwide. Headquartered in St. Louis, McCarthy also has offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.

McCarthy Building Companies Inc., one of the oldest construction companies in America and a 100 percent employee-owned firm, was honored this week with the top 2011 TORCH Award from the Better Business Bureau (BBB) Serving Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois. The TORCH Award honors excellence in customer service, employee relations and ethical business practices. McCarthy President and Chief Operating Officer Derek Glanvill accepted the award during the ceremony.

“Founded as a small family-owned company in 1864, McCarthy’s long history has been built on the solid values of integrity, trust and an open approach to doing business,” explained Glanvill. “Today, we’ve grown into one of the largest construction companies in America. But, even though times have changed, our guiding principles have not. Being honored with this TORCH Award confirms the principles that guided our builders nearly 150 years ago are still just as relevant today.”

Timothy McCarthy originally founded the company in Ann Arbor, Mich., as a lumber business. His sons moved the firm to St. Louis in 1917, where it has grown into one of the nation’s premier commercial builders known for safely solving the most complex construction challenges. The company became 100 percent employee-owned in 2002, when Michael M. McCarthy, the last significant family shareholder, sold his shares to employees.

“Our ownership culture fosters a level of commitment and dedication that we believe translates directly into world-class customer service,” continued Glanvill. “While we utilize the most sophisticated technology tools in the business, ultimately our reputation is built on how we treat one another – our McCarthy family, clients, industry partners and neighbors in the community. We think that’s what being a true builder is all about.”

With 2010 revenues of $2.5 billion, McCarthy has approximately 1,500 salaried employees across America. In the St. Louis metro area, McCarthy, together with MC Industrial, an independent McCarthy company, has completed work in a variety of market sectors including healthcare, education, commercial, science & technology, industrial, transportation and power. Currently, the firm has more than $500 million in work underway in the region.

McCarthy is the eleventh recipient of the top TORCH Award in the St. Louis region. Former recipients of the award include: Anheuser-Busch Companies, Brown Shoe Corp., Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Monsanto and United Van Lines.

About the Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a nonprofit, business-supported organization that sets and upholds high standards for fair and honest business behavior. The BBB provides objective advice, free BBB Business Reviews, dispute resolution service, charity wise-giving reports, alerts and educational information on topics affecting marketplace trust. More information is available at http://www.bbb.org/.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. With a never-ending mission to be the Best Builder in America, the firm is currently the nation’s 10th largest builder (Engineering News-Record, May 2011) and 178th largest private company (Forbes, November 2011). McCarthy offers general contracting, construction management and design-build services for the a variety of project types including: healthcare, education, science and technology, green, entertainment, parking, office, bridges and highways, retail, industrial, tenant interiors and mixed-use. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is a 100 percent employee-owned private company, or “S corporation employee stock ownership plan” (S ESOP). More information is available online at www.mccarthy.com.

McCarthy is construction manager for the fit out as well as the health center and medical office building core and shell. All are designed by BSA LifeStructures. The concrete and structural steel buildings have a brick and stone veneer and will complete in October 2012 with projected use in January 2013.

McCarthy and Jefferson County-based partners, Shores Builders and Lipps Construction, broke ground on the hospital project in April 2010 and the medical office building in March 2011. McCarthy expects to complete the $14.5 million core and shell portion and lobby of the medical office building in the spring of 2012 with completion of the interiors aligning with the October completion of the hospital. The hospital and medical office building are located on Veteran’s Memorial Drive, adjacent to the new interchange for I-57 and I-64.

About McCarthy
Founded in 1864 and headquartered in St. Louis, McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest commercial builders in the Midwest and the largest American-based healthcare builder in the country. McCarthy has constructed more than 800 significant healthcare facilities and renovated thousands more – while consistently appearing on Modern Healthcare’s Top 5 list of leading healthcare construction management companies. McCarthy is 100 percent employee-owned. More information is available online at http://www.mccarthy.com.

“Mars is committed to utilizing local and regional resources and talent as much as possible in our new facility,” explained Joe Wrona, operations manager for Mars Chocolate North America. “The event this morning continues to build on the important relationships that we are establishing in the community; we expect to be here for a long time, and look forward to developing mutual relationships with the local community partners.”

Located in Topeka’s new Kanza Fire Commerce Park, the facility will produce M&M’S^®, SNICKERS^® and other chocolate products. Designed by Kansas City, Mo.-based CRB Consulting Engineers and Builders, the project includes construction of facilities for production, office, warehouse and material storage, packaging, central utilities, rail unloading, guard house and water treatment.

McCarthy anticipates more than 1,000 trades people will work on site over the course of the project with the majority coming from the local workforce. Upon completion, Mars expects to hire approximately 200 full-time operations associates to resource the lines installed during this initial phase. Subsequent phases of development will then expand the capacity of the facility.

The site work and building structure packages have been awarded to local contractors already with work currently underway. The remaining building enclosure and fit-out work will be awarded in the first half of 2012.

Demonstrating Mars’ commitment to sustainability, the new facility will be built to meet leading-edge environmental standards and will pursue LEED Gold certification upon completion through the United States Green Building Council’s green building certification program. The LEED program is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to provide construction services to one of America’s preeminent companies and are looking forward to working with Mars and the community of Topeka to deliver this new state-of-the-art facility,” commented McCarthy Project Director Doug Mangers.

About Mars Chocolate North America
Mars Chocolate North America (www.mars.com) is the North American chocolate operations of Mars, Incorporated. In 1911, Frank C. Mars made the first Mars candies in his Tacoma, Wash., kitchen and established Mars’ first roots as a confectionery company. In the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. joined his father in business and together they launched the MILKY WAY^® bar. In 1932, Forrest, Sr. moved to the United Kingdom with a dream of  building a business based on the philosophy of a “mutuality of benefits” for all stakeholders – this vision serves as the foundation of Mars, Incorporated today. Based in McLean, Va., Mars has net sales of more than $30 billion and six business segments including Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks and Symbioscience. More than 65,000 Associates worldwide are putting Mars Principles in action every day to make a difference for people and the planet through performance.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. (www.mccarthy.com) is one of the nation’s oldest and largest commercial construction companies. Founded in 1864, the firm is currently the 10^th largest builder in America (Engineering News-Record, May 2011). This resume of experience includes: food & beverage facilities; research facilities; life sciences; nanotechnology; pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical processing; data centers; high containment labs (BSL-3, BSL-4 and Potent Compound); cleanrooms; agri-business; and biomedical facilities. Headquartered in St. Louis, McCarthy also has full-service offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.

“McCarthy’s never-ending mission is to be The Best Builder in America,” commented McCarthy President and Chief Operating Officer Derek Glanvill. “As a 100 percent employee-owned company , our holistic approach to wellness flows logically from this mission. In addition, as healthcare costs in America soar, McCarthy employee-owners understand the impact this can have on our business and the role they can play in helping to manage this. Focusing on wellness together, we can to be more productive partners, better family members and in turn potentially control rising costs through prevention.”

Developed and launched in 2010, McCarthy Build for Life is a comprehensive wellness program designed to encourage all employees and their families to strive toward optimal mental, physical and emotional well-being. The program focuses on four key areas: Awareness, Prevention, Activity, and Lifestyle & Stress.

“When it comes to our construction projects, our approach has always been to invest a significant effort up front to prevent issues before they occur,” continued Glanvill. “We have extended this same proactive approach to our Build for Life program, encouraging employees to make wellness a part of their everyday lives.”

To jump start McCarthy’s wellness program in 2010, the company launched an Activity Challenge. All employees received a free pedometer and used an online step tracking program to log daily steps. More than 50% of employees participated in the program, logging 184,974,999 steps. The 2011 Activity Challenge, now including spouses and partners, was completed July 8, 2011 with participants logging 222,775,416 steps.

“The McCarthy Build for Life Program is a grassroots program, supported by Wellness Champions in each McCarthy and MC Industrial office,” explained McCarthy Vice President, Human Resources Al Berardi. “These Champions communicate with employees in their region and encourage involvement.”

Key program features include:

• Rewards program designed to help increase the health of all McCarthy partners while, at the same time, controlling healthcare costs over the long-term. Employees and their spouse/partner can earn points for completing proactive, health-related activities that will be directly applied toward reduced medical insurance premiums;
• Complimentary health screenings for McCarthy employees and spouses/partners, including blood pressure screening, BMI/waist circumference checks, cholesterol/HDL/Glucose screenings, and Prostate Specific Antigen screenings;
• Quarterly wellness newsletter delivered to homes of all employees, in partnership with the Mayo Clinic, and discount subscriptions to health-related publications;
• Regular educational wellness webinars available to employees and their families;
• Wellness areas in all main office locations and at all-employee biannual meetings featuring material on health, nutrition, activity and stress/lifestyle management;
• Wide array of company-sponsored wellness employee events

“McCarthy has made great strides in focusing on improving employee health both here in St. Louis and across America,” concluded Glanvill. “This award honors many leading St. Louis organizations, and McCarthy is proud to be included in this group.”

About Healthiest Employers
Healthiest Employers is an organization dedicated to promoting wellness in business. The mission is to educate on the value of a healthy workforce and reward organizations that are wellness leaders. To be considered for the Healthiest Employers award, an organization must meet: be a business, not-for-profit or government entity; employ a minimum of two full time employees; demonstrate evidence of an employee wellness program; and complete the online application.

About McCarthy
McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest and largest American-owned commercial contractors. Headquartered in St. Louis, the firm has offices in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Newport Beach, San Francisco and Sacramento. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned .

Builder’s Innovative Approach Garners National Recognition from Associated General Contractors of America

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. one of the nation’s oldest and largest privately-held construction companies and a 100 percent employee-owned business, was honored last week with a 2011 Education Excellence Award from the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC).

Presented during the AGC Training, Education & Development Conference in Kansas City, the Education Excellence Awards recognize the most innovative and collaborative training and development programs in the construction industry. McCarthy was honored in the category of Supervisor-Executive Management for the firm’s Foundations of Leadership Training Program. This AGC award comes on the heels of McCarthy’s placement on the prestigious 2011 Training Magazine Top 125 list and recognition by Corporate University Xchange for training excellence and innovation earlier this year.

“The key to building great projects is building great professionals,” said AGC President Kristine Young. “McCarthy’s leadership training program is an example of how to turn tremendous talent into outstanding professionals.”

Founded as a family-owned business almost 150 years ago, McCarthy is one of the largest 100% employee-owned companies with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan in America today. The firm has long fostered a culture dedicated to continuous improvement, and “Learning” represents one of McCarthy’s six company Core Values. 
 
“McCarthy transitioned from family to employee ownership in 2002,” explained McCarthy Chairman and CEO Mike Bolen. “This significant shift, together with a combination of company growth and retirements of a number of long-time leaders, resulted in our need to more aggressively prepare our high-potential employees for growth. The opportunities at McCarthy are vast and varied, and training these future leaders is an exciting part of our continuing success.”

The McCarthy Foundations of Leadership Program was designed to accelerate the advancement of high performers by challenging them early in their career to take charge of their own development through an orchestrated “peek behind the curtain” at the unique issues faced by the leaders of a multi-billion dollar general contractor. This fast-track approach was also designed to challenge these employees, keep them fully engaged in the company and heighten the overall level of professionalism in the industry.

“Our senior leadership is 100% behind the development of future leaders at McCarthy and actively participate in our Foundations program as instructors,” noted McCarthy Vice President of Human Resources Al Berardi. “We have invested an incredible amount of time to create an active learning experience that is both challenging and meaningful. To be honored by our national association for our efforts is especially meaningful.”

About the Associated General Contractors of America
The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) is the leading association for the construction industry. Operating in partnership with its nationwide network of Chapters, the AGC provides a full range of services satisfying the needs and concerns of its members, thereby improving the quality of construction and protecting the public interest. The AGC represents more than 33,000 leading firms in the industry,  including general contractors, specialty contractors, and service providers and suppliers.

About McCarthy
McCarthy is one of the nation’s oldest and largest domestic general contractors. While a formal McCarthy Training Program had been in place for decades, McCarthy formally launched an entirely revamped training program in 2008 under McCarthy Build U. Unusual in the construction industry and among best-in-class training programs outside of the construction industry, the McCarthy Build U framework provides the company with the structure, alignment, centralization and flexibility needed to personalize training to meet both individual and business needs. Repeatedly honored as a Best Place to Work, McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned.

Bluebeam is a leading developer of smart, simple PDF solutions for the architecture, engineering and construction industries. McCarthy, one of the premier commercial builders in the U.S., uses Bluebeam’s  flagship product, Bluebeam PDF Revu, to hyperlink PDF documents for better access to information such as drawing details, specifications and RFIs.  The documents are then made available on a custom McCarthy jobsite kiosk via a wireless connection for instant access by all jobsite personnel to the most updated information to improve project communication and management.

“McCarthy is always looking for innovative ways to improve our processes and deliver better results for our clients,” said Mike Oster, McCarthy Vice President, Information Technology.  “We wanted to prove that project record drawings could be easily updated, maintained and distributed electronically in lieu of traditional hand posting methods, which are labor intensive, inefficient and often difficult to duplicate. By taking this access out of the trailer and into the field we are also able to give all field personnel real-time access to this critical information. We are pleased with the successful outcome of these efforts and are honored to be recognized by the industry with this Vision Award.”

Constructech magazine honored all of the Vision Award winners on September 14th during its annual Technology Day conference in Oakbrook Terrace, IL. Companies eligible for the honors were involved in residential, commercial, and heavy construction, and also included professionals in all trades, architectural and engineering firms, corporate owners, facility management companies, government agencies, and land developers.

 “Bluebeam PDF Revu gives companies the tools to manage a project more efficiently, as well as save time and money,” said Stephani Haynes, Bluebeam’s Director of Worldwide Marketing. “We are honored to be recognized as industry innovators and we are pleased to have contributed to McCarthy’s success.”

About Bluebeam Software, Inc.
Bluebeam Software invents, develops, and commercializes PDF software intelligently designed to meet the needs of design, engineering and business professionals. Bluebeam produces high-quality, easy-to-use products that allow professionals to improve communication and collaboration immediately with virtually no learning curve. For more information visit Bluebeam Software at http://www.bluebeam.com/.  
                  
About Constructech Magazine
 Constructech magazine is the technology advocate for the construction industry, helping builders, contractors, and corporate owners make educated decisions on software and systems, both in the office and in the field. With unbiased opinions and informative news on software, hardware, automation, and services, Constructech continues to be a highly respected and trusted resource in the industry for almost 15 years.

About McCarthy
McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. is one of the oldest and largest commercial builders in America and among the top users of technology tools in the construction industry (Building Design & Construction, July 2011). McCarthy has offices in St. Louis, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Newport Beach, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco,.  McCarthy is 100 percent employee owned. More information about the company is available online at http://www.mccarthy.com/.

One Design Expert Uses Color & Miracle Room Makeovers to Help All Kids Be Healthier

The month of September has been officially designated National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. As a precursor to this month’s observance, interior design expert Kelee Katillac and a team of Heart Hat volunteers from McCarthy, one of America’s leading hospital builders, completed a therapeutic Miracle Room Makeover for an 8-year-old, St. Louis-area boy suffering with brain tumors.

According to the American Childhood Cancer Organization, more than 12,000 children under the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer every year, and it is the most common cause of death by disease for children and adolescents in America.

“Color can affect mental attitude, assist in pain management and increase wellness,” explained Katillac.

Charlie Grady, the Miracle Room makeover recipient, suffers from Neurofibromatosis type 1. During the makeover, the young boy was in the midst of undergoing his second grueling course of chemotherapy at St. Louis Children’s Hospital to treat life-threatening brain tumors.

“When Kelee approached McCarthy about helping to complete a Miracle Room Makeover for Charlie, it really hit home on so many levels,” explained Scott Wittkop, McCarthy Central Division president. “As one of America’s leading hospital builders, we specialize in building healing environments. Now we could put these skills to work to help make a real difference. Our employees jumped at the chance to get involved.”

In February 2011, Katillac, founder of Design Gives Back, and a team from Guideposts magazine traveled to Missouri to make Charlie’s bedroom into a space of hope and happiness for him during this upcoming year of treatments and beyond. The months of pre-planning for the Miracle Makeover resulted in an intensive week of activities and culminated with an emotional “reveal” as the week came to a close. McCarthy ‘Heart Hats’ volunteers, with Katillac and representatives from Friends of Kids with Cancer, worked diligently to transform Charlie’s bedroom.

“Working closely with Charlie and using art therapy techniques, we were able to identify those colors that had a positive impact for Charlie and then design and build his new room around these,” continued Katillac. With a love of trucks and Thomas the Train, these elements became the heart of the room’s theme. 

An important part of any Miracle Makeover includes engaging the family in the healing process while also transforming the physical space. Charlie has two siblings, a brother, Liam, 9 (with whom he shares a bedroom) and sister Kaitlin, 13. “When one child in a family is seriously ill, the other children feel it and suffer in their own way too,” continued Katillac. “Our goal was to provide an emotional outlet and celebrate their life interests through therapeutic art projects that were part of room makeovers for both Liam and Kaitlin.” 

Charlie’s parents also participated in the week-long process including a “day of beauty” for mom, Kara. The requirements of chemotherapy have left the family few resources for vacations or down time. The Residence Inn of O’Fallon, Mo., donated rooms and fun amenities for the family’s week. 

McCarthy Hearts Hats Project Manager Corey Black coordinated the building process with the design team and managed the team of volunteers. “Working closely with Kelee, we began working on our plan for the construction months in advance,” explained Black. “Packing so many activities into an intense week certainly added a sense of excitement to the process. Seeing the faces of Charlie and his family when the new spaces were revealed was especially meaningful.”

“Using color we were able to help Charlie cope with chemotherapy and stay bright during what most consider a time of darkness,” commented Katillac. “The room for hope and healing we created helped Charlie believe that he could become well again. It provided inspiring colors, images and activities that took his mind off of chemo and kept him positive.”

To make the project a reality was truly a team effort. Key sponsors in addition to McCarthy were Lowe’s, Sachs Electric Company, Residence Inn by Marriot, Flooring Systems, Design Gives Back and Children’s Hospital St. Louis.

“This process has been a miracle for our family,” commented John Grady, Charlie’s father. “It is never easy to have a child who is ill. The Makeover brought so much joy to Charlie and our entire family during a difficult time and continues to do so. And to know that his story will hopefully go on to inspire others really makes it special.”

Want to see more? Watch the emotional Charlie Grade Miracle Makeover reveal.

About Design Gives Back
Interior design expert Kelee Katillac has spent the last twenty years transforming homes and lives. Katillac has been a guest on CNN, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Discovery Channel, Pure Oxygen, The Family Network and many others. Katillac founded Design Gives Back to help those in-need — or critically ill — to have furnished, functional and hope-filled homes. Katillac s currently the Inspired Home Expert for Guideposts: America’s #1 Inspirational Magazine.

 About Friends of Kids with Cancer
Friends of Kids with Cancer is a St. Louis nonprofit devoted to enriching the daily lives of kids undergoing treatment for cancer and providing them and their families with the recreational, educational and emotional support needed throughout the long hours of chemotherapy, illness and isolation.

 About McCarthy Heart Hats
A 100 percent employee-owned company, McCarthy employees are passionate about building better communities. The McCarthy Heart Hats program is the volunteer-based community outreach program of McCarthy dedicated to ensuring real needs are being met in communities where employees work, live and play.