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Genesee Brewery workers help spruce up the neighborhood

Carlos Rojas, Chief Financial Officer for the Florida Ice & Farm Co., parent company of the Genesee Brewery, helping with trash pickup along with other brewery workers.
Randy Gorbman
/
WXXI News
Carlos Rojas, Chief Financial Officer for the Florida Ice & Farm Co., parent company of the Genesee Brewery, helping with trash pickup along with other brewery workers.

The Genesee Brewery  in Rochester does this a couple of times a year…they will close all of the shifts at the facility in High Falls, and more than 300 employee volunteers will then work on various community revitalization projects, everything from planting new trees to picking up trash.

That’s what Carlos Rojas was doing when I saw him with his orange plastic bag, using some long tongs to pick up debris along the Genesee Riverway Trail.

And Rojas isn’t exactly part of the rank and file at the brewery. He is Chief Financial Officer for Florida Ice & Farm Company, also known as FIFCO. It is the Costa Rican-based corporation that owns North American Breweries, the parent company of the Genesee Brewery.  He says these types of community activities are very important to the company’s overall corporate philosophy.

Genesee Brewery workers doing some planting along the Genesee Riverway Trail
Credit Randy Gorbman / WXXI News
/
WXXI News
Genesee Brewery workers doing some planting along the Genesee Riverway Trail

“It’s a way to connect to the purpose of the company and also to the purpose of the individual, so you come to work every day but when you do something that’s completely different and gives back, it’s like a sense of pride and it really gives us one more reason to come to work.”

One of the brewery workers, Kevin Peters, also feels that the beautification efforts are an important part of working at Genesee.

“Because we all live in this community, and we should take pride in it; and sometimes it needs help around here a little bit and we’ve got to get done what we’ve got to do.”

Brewery workers spruced up a number of areas Friday including Conkey Corner Park, the El Camino Trail, High Falls Terrace Park and the Genesee Riverway Trail. 

Video of some of the Genesee Brewery workers planting trees and shrubs along the Genesee Riverway Trail:

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.