PPG Industries announced the completion of a Colorful Communities™ project inZhangjiagang, China, that helped to revitalize the Nansha Primary School as part of its global charitable-giving effort. The program provides PPG employee volunteers and products along with financial contributions to bring color and vitality to communities where the company operates around the world. Launched earlier this year, the program increases PPG’s commitment to invest in communities by adding $10 million to support efforts made during a 10-year period.

The project brought together nearly 170 volunteers– including PPG employees and families from the Zhangjiagang resin manufacturing site, along with students and faculty of the Zhangjiagang Nansha Primary School – who used MASTER’S MARK^® paint by PPG to renovate and decorate the school’s nearly 1,000-square-meter playground fence. PPG awarded a grant of more than $40,000 to the TEDA Charity Associationto support this revitalization project.

Volunteers used the paint to add colorful images to the school’s playground fence. In addition to adding sports-themed designs and a slogan on the main wall, volunteers painted a mural themed “I Love My School” at one corner of the playground.

“It was a meaningful day for the students, our employees and PPG,” said Kent Chen, Manager of PPG’s Zhangjiagang plant. “Children are society’s future. We are pleased to help them create a better campus environment. Overall, with the participation and cooperation required to complete the task, this was an excellent opportunity to enhance our teamwork and spirit while promoting PPG’s corporate social responsibility.”

More than 1,200 students currently attend the century-old Zhangjiagang Nansha Primary School.The Zhangjiagang event is the second Colorful Communities project in China, following a project PPG completed at the Tianjin TEDA Art Center in September.

The Zhangjiagang site is PPG’s first resin plant in China, providing advanced resin products to both PPG coatings businesses and outside customers in China and across the Asia Pacific region since it started operating in 2011.

“As a major production base and a key region of investment for PPG, Zhangjiagang was selected for our second Colorful Communities event in China,” said Cathy Yan, PPG general manager, corporate and government affairs, Asia Pacific. “PPG has long been committed to supporting the communities where it has a presence, and in the future we will extend this revitalization program to more sites in China and continue making efforts to improve and beautify our neighboring communities.”

The PPG Colorful Communities initiative aims to enhance, protect and beautify the neighborhoods where the company operates. Together with community partners and PPG employee volunteers, the program supports projects that transform community assets using donated PPG products. The program is currently engaged with a number of communities and expects to complete more than 14 projects in 2015 in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.

The Colorful Communities program is PPG’s signature initiative for its community engagement efforts. In 2014, PPG and the PPG Industries Foundation donated more than $5.7 million to hundreds of community organizations across 24 countries around the world. These investments focused on: education programs that teach young people skills needed to succeed in studies and careers related to science, technology, engineering and math, such as jobs in advanced manufacturing; revitalization programs for buildings and community spaces; and organizations important to employees through grant and matching-funds programs.