Having grown up in a Brooklyn tenement, Gerry Sigal knows what it’s like to be disadvantaged and discounted. As a boy, he delivered groceries to earn money. He put himself through school, went to work for a New York construction company, and eventually settled in Washington, where he started his own successful business, Sigal Construction Corporation.
In 1995, he read in the paper that the bathrooms at many DC schools were unusable, and he was instantly returned to his roots. He contacted colleagues, clients, and friends, and Operation Spiffy John was born. By the time they were done, Sigal and company had rehabbed restrooms in 14 schools.
He also realized that while unemployment in the District was a chronic problem, public schools didn’t offer a vocational program to train kids for jobs in his own field. So he helped found DC Students Construction Trades Foundation and the public/private partnership that created the Academy of Construction & Design at Cardozo Education Campus. “Lots of young girls who didn’t think of this before are in the program,” Sigal says. “We’ve taught them to be carpenters, plumbers, electrical workers. Some have gone on to college.”
This year, he established an annual award for the outstanding Career and Technical Education student at the academy. The first winner, Treymane Chatman, was hired by Sigal’s company on graduating from Cardozo and became a registered apprentice after just 90 days.
Sigal also awards a scholarship to one District student to attend Parsons design school in New York. He’s on the National Building Museum board and helped rally support for constructing the BIG Maze that delighted museum visitors last summer. In addition, Sigal organized a relief fund to help families of 9/11 victims at the Pentagon. Appointed by President Clinton to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, he’s now co-developer of the new Holocaust archival-research-and-scholarship building to be built in Prince George’s County.
“I’m from the streets of Brooklyn,” Sigal says. “I’m very fortunate. I believe people have to give back.”
