Interns from Florida Power & Light Co. spent the morning of Wednesday, Aug. 1 beautifying Crosspointe Elementary School in Boynton Beach. The volunteer efforts included cleaning up the campus, painting and landscaping. The interns hailed from colleges around the country and were participating in Intern Power to Care Day in which interns give back to the communities FPL serves. Interns planted potted plants in the garden and lawns surrounding the school, laid mulch, cleaned up trash and repainted areas that needed it. They also had the opportunity to custom paint a chair that would sit in the classrooms with the logos of their alma mater.
“When you have 200-plus interns doing a single event, you have to go to a place that can actually handle that size of volunteers,” said Thomas Bean, FPL’s director of public and community engagement. “We’ve been partnering with Education Foundation of Palm Beach County and the School District of Palm Beach County to pick out a Title One school that can really use the intern efforts to get the schools ready for the new school year.”
For some interns, the volunteer day represented a return home as much as a way to give back to the community.
“I’m actually from Palm Beach, so I am a native here,” FPL intern Desha Neston said. “To actually come back here with Florida Power & Light and to give back as an intern is awesome. It’s a phenomenal experience because our children are the future.”
