Proceeds Benefit Northern Illinois Food Bank

Naperville, Ill. (October 28, 2010)—Through its inaugural Test in the West charity fundraiser event, Ryan Companies US, Inc. collected approximately $44,000 for donation to the Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB) to help the non-profit organization provide food and related services to its constituents.

According to Ryan Midwest Division President Jeff Smith, the annual event is designed to raise money that will be donated to a west suburban Chicagoland organization that actively contributes to the community. The Midwest Division of Ryan Companies is based in Naperville.

“Regardless of economic conditions, there are many charitable organizations in the western suburbs that can benefit significantly from donations to launch programs and complete their work,” Smith said. “Our ability to establish and carry-out an event that could raise tens of thousands of dollars is something that gives all of us at Ryan a great sense of pride.”

The money raised at the event was donated to NIFB’s general funds to help cover the expenses of food, food distribution and transportation. Every dollar of food donated to NIFB allows it to purchase eight pounds of food. With that equation, the $44,000 donated by Ryan Companies equates to more than 350,000 pounds of food that can be purchased by NIFB.

“Meeting today’s hunger need is a responsibility in which all of us must be a partner,” said H. Dennis Smith, president and chief executive officer, Northern Illinois Food Bank. “Test in the West not only produced some much needed dollars to use in acquiring and distributing food to the hungry, but it brought a number of new partners to Northern Illinois Food Bank. Ryan Companies did a great job of entertaining people and getting them involved in a very important community mission—helping less fortunate neighbors.”

On Sept. 30 approximately 150 people took part in Test in the West, an eight-round trivia contest that was the brainchild of Ryan’s community outreach effort. The event was held at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, Ill. Event sponsors were Ryan Companies and Exelon Nuclear.

Table sponsorships also were offered and included Anderson Mikos Architects Ltd.; Burke, Warren, MacKay & Serritella, P.C.; Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd.; Connelley Electric; Credit Capital LLC; Euclid Beverage Ltd.; Kellenberger Electric, Inc.; Kraft Foods/Cadbury; McKinney Steel & Sales, Inc.; Prairie Mechanical, Inc.; Ready Tile Co., LLC; and Scurto Cement Construction, Ltd.

Teams of eight competed for points in eight rounds of trivia questions. Like the popular game show Jeopardy, there were themed categories for each round, with one question per category asked each round. The eight theme topics were Sports, The 2000s, SATs, World History, Movies, Chicagoland Photo Challenge, Game Show Theme Songs and Brain Teaser.

The winning teams were Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd., first place, and Midwest Decorating/Baker Tilly, second place. Members of the first and second place teams received Amazon Kindle 3Gs and Apple iPod Shuffles as prizes, respectively.

Additional money was raised through the generous donations companies made contributing to the tie-breaker envelope. In the event of a tie, the winning team would be determined by the money participants placed in the tie breaker envelope at their table.

NIFB is a non-profit organization that provides food to people in need through its 665 partner agencies in 13 counties – Boone, DuPage, DeKalb, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Will and Winnebago. NIFB acquires, gathers, handles, and distributes donated, government and purchased food to more than 61,000 different people each week through local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, youth activity centers and other food assistance sites. In fiscal year 2010 NIFB distributed over 35.1 million pounds of food.

According to Ryan’s Smith, Ryan expects to make Test in the West an annual event. He pointed to the overall success of the event, the amount of money that was raised from many generous donors and the never-ending need of charitable organizations in the western suburbs.

“We strive to be good corporate citizens and neighbors,” Smith said. “Test in the West will be an annual event and it will benefit a different charitable organization every year.”

About Ryan Companies US, Inc.
Ryan Companies US, Inc., a nationally recognized design-builder, developer and real estate manager, has specialized in providing fully integrated solutions for more than 70 years. Ryan ranked 76th in Engineering News-Record’s (ENR’s) list of Top 400 Contractors. In its first 10 years of operation, Ryan’s Midwest Division (based in Chicago) has completed over $1 Billion in projects for customers such as Deere & Company, Isle of Capri, Target Corporation, Dominick’s, C. H. Robinson and Froedtert & Community Health.  In addition to its Chicago office, Ryan has offices in Minneapolis, San Diego, Tampa, Phoenix and Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa.