CFC’s Holiday Party Celebrates 2023 Founders Safety Award Winners And New Promotions
CFC’s 2023 holiday party was much more than an excuse to eat, drink, and be merry. Sure, we were there to eat some good food and celebrate the season. But we also embraced the occasion to honor the very core of what makes CFC great: Our incredible people.
To that end, we continued our annual holiday party tradition of announcing the winners of the CFC Founders Safety Award – and also announced the promotions of several key CFC associates who are rising up the ranks. After all, who wants another staid email announcement when you can instead surround each new promotee and award winner with the cheers, congratulations, and smiling faces of all their colleagues?
For CFC’s people, December 1 was a night to remember for several reasons. Held at the Denver Aquarium and its striking fish-tank-lined restaurant, this year’s party featured not only a delicious dinner and chance to socialize with colleagues and their guests, but also the chance to wander the aquarium after hours. As people explored the exhibits at their own pace, the CFC Holiday Elf Hunt added an extra layer of fun: Employees lucky enough to find the CFC elf hidden in an aquarium exhibit submitted selfies to be entered in a prize drawing for $200, $100, and $50 Visa gift cards.
Elves and fish tanks aside, the real highlights of the night were the announcements of the new promotions and this year’s CFC Founders Safety Award winners. “I was thrilled at the reaction to the public promotion announcements,” said CFC President Sean Smith. “Each person who was promoted had their time in the proverbial spotlight, where I had the honor of calling out their accomplishments and accolades. Then, the rest of the team piled on with raucous cheers and congratulations for each one.”
The team also enjoyed an impactful discussion about the Founders Safety Award, and what “Coming Home Safe” means to each of our people and their loved ones, many of whom were right there in the room with us. This year, the coveted safety award – which comes with an $800 cash bonus for each CFC employee on the winning project team – went to the team working on Lincoln Station, a mixed-use, light-rail-adjacent multifamily development in Lone Tree. The wonderfully deserving CFC employees who won this year’s Founders Award included Stephen Ludwig, Bill Pilger, Zane Dobler, Danny Netherton, Alex Pacheco, Skyler Shearer, Ismael Souley, Greg Baumer, Jesus “Chuy” Navarro, Mayi Guerrero, Julio Bonilla, Javier Tarin, and Nicole Toney.
The Founders Award — named in honor of CFC Chairman and Founder EJ Olbright, whose commitment to safety continues to underpin all of CFC’s projects — has been awarded since 2018. A statue in CFC’s lobby commemorates the award. The goal of the award is not only to ensure a robust focus on everyday safety, but also to continually improve the company’s processes to ensure the safest workplace possible. The competitive aspect of the award also encourages CFC’s teams to learn from and be inspired by other teams’ safety successes. Ultimately, it’s a winning combination for all CFC employees, trade partners, and every individual who comes into contact with our work.
CFC Safety Director Shawn Burke said, “The Lincoln Station project was selected for the Founders Award based on field observations made by a third party and a thorough review of their safety documentation. The project team’s enthusiasm and energy towards safety, coupled with their completion of the required safety documentation, earned the team this year’s award.”
CFC’s third-party consultant – Chad Olivier from LOM Consulting Services – scored each project based on his observations over several site visits, focusing his observations on PPE, fall protection, housekeeping, and other field compliance items. To ensure impartiality in scoring, the consultant’s score accounted for 60% of the overall score weighting. The remaining 40% of the scoring, conducted by Burke, consists solely of the safety documentation project teams should be tracking (e.g., project orientations, safety inspections, safety permits, subcontractor safety manuals).
In 2023, Olivier commended all eligible projects for their overall safety performance, indicating that he’d found it challenging to pick a winner. But the Lincoln Station project ultimately edged out the competition, according to Olivier, based on which project most stood out in terms of “attitude, consistency, and… a better overall spirit of shared duty when it comes to the safety process.”
We are proud to honor the Lincoln Station project team and their shared spirit of safety, and grateful for their clear commitment. After all, every successful project is a safe project.
The end of the year brings countless reasons to celebrate. At CFC, we’re thrilled to have a tradition of holiday parties that also put the spotlight on the truly exceptional teams and leaders who are out there making it all happen. Here’s to those who step up, inspire, empower, and lead our people in the daily delivery of high-quality work to all of our clients.
To learn more about CFC’s safety commitment and the values and job site practices that underpin it, check out our website. CFC is also a proud participant in the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of Colorado’s Construction Health and Safety Excellence (CHASE) Partnership. CFC has achieved the highest award level possible annually since 2018.