PPG has announced the completion of a COLORFUL COMMUNITIES project in Istanbul, Turkey, that provided newly built and painted bicycles to nearly 35 elementary school students, including 15 who are Syrian refugees. The Colorful Communities program provides PPG volunteers and products along with financial contributions to bring color and vitality to communities where our company operates around the world, such as in Istanbul.

The project brought together more than 40 PPG employees from the company’s operations in Turkey, who spent three days volunteering to build and paint bicycles that would be given to the children. PPG provided $15,500 to assist with the project, including more than 10 kilograms (about 3.7 gallons) of PPG industrial coatings products used to paint a bicycle for each child in his or her favorite color.

As more and more refugees of war-torn Syria flee to neighboring Turkey, the citizens of Turkey are helping them through efforts such as this one. PPG employees in Turkey worked with the Turkish Red Crescent Foundation, the largest humanitarian organization in the country, and ACCELL Bisiklet, one of the leading bicycle makers in Turkey and a PPG customer, to plan and complete this bicycle-building project.

As part of the project, children visited PPG’s local automotive refinish application training center to learn about the company and participate in fun activities with volunteers. The bright new bicycles were presented to the children during a celebration last week at Botanical Park, Bursa, near where PPG’s coatings plant in Turkey is located.

Günes Evgin, PPG managing director, Turkey, said, “We are very happy to finish the second Colorful Communities project in Turkey. In addition to helping children in our community, this project is especially important for us because it engaged one of our customers as well as employees of PPG’s automotive refinish, automotive coatings, industrial coatings, and protective and marine coatings businesses. We are looking forward our next community project in Turkey to continue helping to protect and beautify our country.”

Nurhayat Ulucan, PPG human resources manager, Turkey, added, “PPG aims to protect and beautify the world not just for our customers, but also for our neighbors in need. We believe that the first step to helping a community improve is to help its children. Our employees here in Turkey are directly witnessing how the situation in Syria is impacting so many innocent children. With this project, we wanted to help unite these children with local Turkish children and with our entire community.”

The Colorful Communities program is PPG’s signature initiative for community engagement efforts, with the aim to protect and beautify the neighborhoods where PPG operates around the world. The program increases PPG’s commitment to invest in communities by adding $10 million to support efforts made during a 10-year period. It supports projects that transform community assets, providing PPG volunteers and donated PPG products. PPG completed 11 Colorful Communities projects in 2015, and it expects to complete more than 30 this year.