Every year more than 1,000 people working in the construction industry in the U.S. die from being injured while on the job. In 2023, construction “had the most fatalities among all industry sectors” according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Behind the numbers are people – women and men who have lost their lives and the families they leave behind.

This is where Construction Angels comes in, and why NAWIC partnered with the organization this year.

Construction Angels is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that “provides immediate financial assistance and grief counseling to the children and spouse left behind when a construction worker is involved in an accidental work-related fatality.” This assistance ranges from $8,000 in direct aid to families, to scholarships for the children who have lost a parent.

“What they do is cut through a lot of red tape and directly help those in need, and sometimes that’s exactly what we need to do,” NAWIC President-elect, Rita Brown, says.

Brown believes that partnering with Construction Angels is paramount because NAWIC is part of the greater construction industry community, and supporting the community is fundamental to supporting NAWIC members. “It’s important work, work we can all get behind,” Brown says. “Those are families that are affected. Supporting our families – that have and still support us – is vital.”

While the partnership between NAWIC and Construction Angels began at the national level, the work Construction Angels does resonates so strongly with NAWIC members that local chapters got involved quickly.

On January 2nd, Hannah Garison, board treasurer of the Little Rock, Arkansas chapter of NAWIC, sat down at her work computer and opened an email about renewing her NAWIC membership. An employee of the Arkansas Department of Transportation (ARDOT) had been struck by a car, and killed, while working that morning.  That, Garison says, “kind of triggered me.” She did some research, then reached out to see if Construction Angels had anyone in Arkansas. Finding nothing, she decided that she, and eventually the Little Rock chapter of NAWIC, would be the “anyone.” Garison, who is the executive support manager at Riggs CAT, presented Construction Angels to the Riggs Benevolent Fund, and asked for state level sponsorship.  She got it, at the silver $5,000 level. “My husband’s in construction,” Garrison explains. “I feel like I can put myself in that position. I mean, they’re just going to work one day and the next thing you know that’s it, they’re done. A terrible accident happens – I can’t imagine getting that phone call.” Kristi Ronyak, CEO, founder and national executive director of Construction Angels said the organization is currently helping in 32 states. Fundraisers held in those states raise money that go to support families in that state. Donations at the national level, “help where we don’t have a fundraising presence,” she says.

In 2009 Ronyak was working in construction; her family has been in asphalt for three generations. At a trade show, a woman was collecting money for “one of our own” who’d died. Ronyak assumed “one of our own” was the name of a charity. When she got back to work she asked around, trying to find the charity, but couldn’t. Then, around Christmas time, a local company had a fatality and asked her if she’d ever found the charity she was asking about. “I said ‘no’ and they said, ‘maybe you should start one…and I did.” Ronyak worked full time for the first five years of starting, and running, Construction Angels.

“I did it because it was the right thing to do,” she says. The week she spoke with NAWIC, there were fatalities in both Texas and North Carolina. In March, 2024, a cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland. Six workers who were filling potholes on the bridge were killed. Construction Angels took $65,000 from their national funds and gave it to the families of the workers. The organization also opened an online donation portal for two months, will all money collected turned over to the families.

Seeing a tragic accident on national news is not the usual way Construction Angels hears about a fatality, and a family that needs help. Usually they learn about it via people in the construction industry. “Even though our industry is so big, it’s so small,” Ronyak says. To formally start the flow of aid, there’s an assistance request form on the Construction Angels website that Ronyak says takes about three to five minutes to fill out. But word of mouth is almost always the starting point.

Garrison is leveraging more than word of mouth to spread information about Construction Angels. She’s sent a letter out to multiple organizations in Little Rock introducing the charity which led to a meeting with the Arkansas Asphalt Pavement Association (AAPA). The day after her presentation she had $10,000 in pledges for Construction Angels. Garrison feels that the industry professionals she knows, including members of NAWIC and Women of Asphalt – where she serves as vice-chair – want to do more in the community. “We want to lift each other up,” she says.

This echoes NAWIC national’s theme this year: Together We Rise.

As part of the partnership at the national level, there will be a fundraiser at NAWIC’s annual conference with all proceeds going to Construction Angels. Attendees will rise, literally, to the top of Boston’s Prudential Center for “Cocktails for a Cause.”

The event takes place on August 21, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Critically acclaimed indie-country  singer, and former car mechanic, Angie K. will perform. Tickets are $50 which includes a drink and light bites. Conference registration is required to purchase a ticket.

If you are unable to attend the Annual Conference, but would like to learn more about or donate directly to Construction Angels, click here: https://www.constructionangels.us/