Twenty-two vendors joined forces with us to welcome and thank nearly 200 guests for their business and support. Top Kenseal executives Paul McKinnell, Chris Lippmann and Ken Pfrommer joined the Chantilly team for a day to answer questions.

Every guest received a Kenseal T-shirt as well as the chance to win some great giveaways, including a 42″ Vizio HDTV and a Garmin GPS. Christian Macias of Pillar Construction walked away with the HDTV and-according to his boss-missed the next four days of work watching basketball. The winner of the Garmin GPS was Valcourt Building Service’s Dave Rittenhower, who now has no excuse to be late to anything.

Our vendor partners supplied additional door prizes that ranged from hockey, football and baseball tickets to gift cards, T-shirts, hats and other fun items. Two members of the Washington Redskins Cheerleading Team posed for photos and gave away Redskin team prizes. Local favorite Anita’s New Mexico Style Restaurant provided fantastic food while a DJ kept the tunes coming.

The day was a tremendous success and special thanks goes to: Sto, Tremco, Dow Corning, WR Grace, Pecora, Sika, Basf, Neogard, Miracote, Prosoco, Craftsmens, PPSI, Newborn, Henry, Emseal, Rapid Set, ITW-RedHead, DeNeef, ConProCo, Karnak, Soudal, Albion and Simpson Tools.

We awarded several fantastic prizes to Kenseal customers, including a Sony Bravia 42″ LCD HDTV, two Garmin 750 Navigation Systems, and two Guitar Hero III video games. Our customers also got to meet their Kenseal reps face-to-face as well as see the latest products from some of our top vendors.

We want to thank the following manufacturers for their grand opening participation and sponsorship: 3M, Dumond, Schul, Grace, Tremco, Prosoco, Sika, Sto, Dow, Laticrete, Liquid Plastics, and Tamms.

The new 552 South Fulton Avenue showroom in Mount Vernon marks our third Metro New York location. Stop by or give us a call at 914-663-6401. We also have showrooms in Parsippany, NJ and Long Island City, NY

Plenty of prizes were awarded. The foursome of Pete Rowland (Kenseal), Bill Swann (Chemtrete), Phil Carp (DK Associates), and Dave Petrone (Access Architectural) won the scramble format event with a score of 11 under par. Tom Klepacki (Sika) had the long drive of the day and Tim Mastroberti (Window City) won closest-to-the-pin honors, landing 3′ 4″ from the hole…and yes, he made the birdie putt!

Many thanks to our vendor sponsors: Newborn, Tremco, Nomaco, Grace, Pecora/B&L Group, Euclid, Neogard, The Pipeknife Co., STI Firestop, Dow Corning, BASF, Sika, Prosoco, Hohman and Bernard, Metabo, STO, Schul International, and Chemtrete. Special thanks Dave Lappe, Pete Rowland and Joe Gasparino for organizing the event and to the staff of the Wild Turkey Golf Club who helped make it a day to remember.

We look forward to continuing the tradition with an even bigger and better event in 2009!

With two locations in Charlotte, the ReStores accept donations of new and gently used construction and home-related items from individuals and businesses in the community. The Restore sells those items to the public at a reduced cost, usually 50-70 percent less then the original retail value. All proceeds go toward building Habitat homes in Charlotte. This year the profits of the two stores will raise enough money to build ten homes.

“We were thrilled to receive Kenseal’s Italian porcelain tile donation,” said Tim Murphy (title). “By stocking it in our ReStore locations, we were able to raise a significant amount of money. Companies like Kenseal allow us to help so many families, and we truly appreciate their support.”

In 2007, we assembled a team to help MARC House (Monroe County Association of Retarded Citizens) transform a school into a home. In 2008, we rolled up our sleeves for Wesley House Family Services. This multi-faceted, non-profit agency provides a wide range of services to needy families in Key West that enhance the safety, well-being and development of children.

The Kenseal team improved Wesley House’s Frederick Douglass Child Development Center by tearing out a worn gazebo, painting a fence, and building the foundation for a trash can enclosure. We wrapped up the day by presenting Wesley House with a $1,500 donation for the Building for Children Fund for the remodeling of the Inez Martin Child Care Center. This donation was increased to $3,000 thanks to a Capital Matching Grant from the Eckerd Family Foundation

Since the early 1970′s, student groups of the American Society of Civil Engineers have constructed and raced concrete canoes at the local and regional level. Each school competes on their concrete canoe’s design paper, oral presentation, floatability, aesthetics, and ability to race.

In 2008, Kenseal salesperson John B. Ryan had assisted the UNH team with coating for their canoe. In 2009, John stepped up Kenseal’s participation and got Sika on board with a selection of the company’s admixtures. In only their third year of participation in the New England Regional Canoe Competition, UNH placed fourth overall out of 11 schools, missing third place by just four points.

UNH team captain Chris Stankus was greatly appreciative of Kenseal’s and Sika’s sponsorship. “UNH was the only team in the competition that pre-stressed the canoe, and the judges were highly impressed. Doing this enabled our team to reduce the total weight of the canoe from 330 pounds last year to 240 pounds this year,” he said. “Also by pre-stressing the concrete, our canoe was one of only two in the competition that did not crack.”

John credits Sika’s admixtures and said, “These students are on their way to greatness! We hope to help them every year so they can finish higher with each competition.”