One of the things we love about what we do at Evening Janitorial is the opportunity to connect with fascinating people and enterprises around the Bay Area. Each month we highlight either a current client or team member, so please say hello to Sarai, one of our top field personnel.

This month we are honored to feature Sarai, our utility crew leader extraordinaire!

Sarai lives in Oakland and is a graduate of Skyline High School.  Just approaching 30, she’s been a US citizen since 15, and arrived here from Mexico as a young child with her parents and family members. Her experience in the cleaning industry began with the large SF firm Able Janitorial in 2003. After 5 years with Able, Sarai then worked at Long’s Drugs (prior to the CVS merger) to maintain their VCT flooring in the evenings at various Long’s locations.  Her Mom has enjoyed a long career with Able as well.  Sarai’s Dad Jose is a local entrepreneur in Oakland as owner operator of Foothill Vacuum.  The store specializes in vacuums of course, but also rents and repairs all types of commercial cleaning machinery. Perhaps that explains her expertise in running a buffer machine, a power washer, a carpet extractor, or a floor scrubber machine.

In the last 60 days, Sarai has helped several of Evening Janitorial’s current clients with a variety of interesting requests:

• Power washing 20 canvass awnings at a strip mall in Richmond.                                                               Look at those gorgeous stripes!

• High dusting interior wooden beams in a large loft type office in Oakland.
• Power washing 200 feet of sidewalk at Barnes and Noble in Walnut Creek.
• Strip, seal and wax VCT classroom floors in both Richmond and Berkeley over Christmas break.
• Apartment turn overs at semester break at a local college.
• Construction clean up at the brand new Total Women’s Gym in Alameda.
• Kitchen equipment deep cleaning at Piedmont School District over break.
• Full perimeter window cleaning at a two story medical complex in Hayward.

This type of extra work is usually performed for our existing portfolio of clients, but we are happy to offer such services on a one time basis. So whether you need your windows washed or your carpets cleaned, or something power washed, please contact Kathy at 925-437-9001 or email her for a quote! Give Evening Janitorial a try as your New Year’s resolution to stop settling with your current cleaners. Click here for a quick quote and start the New Year off clean!

Besides proper hand-washing techniques, it’s important for people who are sick to cough or sneeze into their elbows instead of their hands. If a person coughs into his or her hands and expels the flu virus, recontamination is a possibility if the person then touches their nose.

Other helpful tips offered by the CDC include avoiding people who are sick and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth when possible. If you become sick with flu or another respiratory illness, stay home (or keep your child at home) for at least 24 hours after fever is gone unless necessary, like having to seek medical care.

For those working in an office where flu may spread, the CDC recommends frequent cleaning of touched objects and surfaces such as doorknobs, keyboards and phones.

That of course is where Evening Janitorial comes in.  Our teams are trained in best practices of daily disinfecting of commonly touched surfaces like reception counters, door knobs, fountains, kitchen counters.  These nightly tasks make it less likely that a person will be contaminated with influenza germs at our clients’ locations this season.

California public health officials are preparing for an increase in flu patients and are carefully watching other states, where the influenza outbreak has been much more severe. The flu tends to peak in the state in February or March.

The CDC is reporting that 47 states are reporting widespread influenza and 24 states showing high disease activity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still says the best way to prevent influenza is to get a flu vaccine, which was about 62 percent effective based on preliminary research.

Dr. Elaine Larson, associate dean of research at Columbia University School of Nursing, explains to CBSNews.com that some people may not be practicing proper hand-washing techniques in the midst of flu season. “The biggest mistake is not covering the surfaces most likely to touch, which are the fingertips,” said Larson. “People rub their palms together, when fingertips are the most critical.”

Since its founding in 1998, the organization has collected more than $93 million worth of life-saving medical supplies and equipment from hundreds of hospitals and corporations and has sent them to  more than 2100 medical teams in 85-plus countries. And MedShare’s work does more than save lives. It also does good for our planet. In 2010 alone, its supply and recovery efforts saved approximately 535,000 pounds of CO2, equal to almost 554,000 miles driven, and conserved 1.8 million kilowatt hours, equivalent to about 150 households’ annual electricity use.

Working with a volunteer corps numbering more than 1500 people a month, the group sorts donated disposable medical supplies, such as gloves and sutures, and gently used equipment like surgical instruments, stethoscopes, wheelchairs, patient monitors and sterilizers. The items are then packed in boxes and loaded onto 40-foot tractor-trailer-size containers for shipping. Each container holds about $155,000 worth of medical supplies and equipment — around 12,000 pounds that otherwise would end up in landfills.

In addition to receiving Green Business Certification from the Bay Area Green Business Program and the Reuse Award from the California Resource Recovery Association, MedShare consistently receives the top four-star rating from Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities’ financial health and accountability and transparency.

We are proud to play a part in these noble efforts. Evening Janitorial cleans MedShare’s offices and donation and distribution center, ensuring that staff and volunteers have a spotless, comfortable environment in which to do their work. Not only do we have many nonprofit clients, but we have developed a niche in cleaning medical locations, and coincidentally some of our other clients, including physicians and staff at John Muir Physicians Network and Sutter East Bay/Alta Bates, are donors to the MedShare cause.

To make a donation, volunteer your time or just learn more, visit MedShare’s website.

The outlet, which opened just in time for holiday shopping, boasts 130 designer and brand-name retailers, including Bloomingdale’s Outlet Store, Last Call by Neiman Marcus, the Armani Outlet, Barneys New York, Coach, DKNY, Kate Spade, J. Crew, Michael Kors, Polo Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger.

We’ve been awaiting the opening of the mall ever since we were hired two years ago to clean the builders’ trailers on the site, where our expertise was put to the test daily against construction dust and grime. As the opening drew near, we went in to do construction cleanup in several stores, including J. Crew, Jockey, Estée Lauder, Seven for Mankind and Splendid. We expect that the 1000 families of another Livermore Evening Janitorial client, a local charter school, will be regular customers.

Paragon Outlets, located just off Interstate 580 at the El Charro Road exit, is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday until 7 p.m. Hard-core shoppers can get a jump on Black Friday when the mall opens at 10 p.m. (you read that right — 10 p.m.) on Thanksgiving night.

We have many clients in Berkeley, from law and engineering offices to churches and schools. We are honored to be recognized as the Best of Berkeley. At Evening Janitorial, we always strive not only to provide the best cleaning service to our clients but to be an integral part of the communities in which they do business.

Artemis Racing takes to the Bay in quest of the America's Cup.

The America’s Cup, the most prestigious sailing race in the world, is slated for next September in San Francisco Bay. Eight sailing teams from around the world have already converged here for the America’s Cup World Series, a lead-up to the big event.

One of the teams, Artemis Racing, representing the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, chose the former U.S. Naval Air Station in Alameda as its local headquarters. It takes a lot of people to run an America’s Cup team: the crew, of course, and a full design group, technicians, engineers, management — about 80 people in all. Artemis needed space for them all — and their 45-foot and 72-foot catamarans.

While the naval base couldn’t be better situated, with shoreline water access and only a quick trip to the starting line, the former airplane hangar that was to be team’s home for the next year was hardly turn-key. The abandoned 110K-square-foot airplane hangar, with its two-story offices at either end, would require renovation and deep cleaning before the boats and team arrived in July. While still negotiating the lease with the City of Alameda, Artemis base project manager Bill Erkelens sought a commercial janitorial firm. “I did a Google search to find a firm to clean up the mess. That’s how I found Evening Janitorial in February,” he says.

He invited Evening Janitorial principal Kathy Weeks to walk the space with him. There are several offices, a reception area, meeting and conference rooms, a workout facility, half a dozen large restrooms, a locker area and most recently a bank of six portable showers with dressing areas which were wheeled in and dropped on site for use by the team.

“We had quite a massive project here to tackle, but we were confident in our ability to make the site ready for Artemis,” Mrs. Weeks said recently. “Evening Janitorial is often called upon for clean-ups, so the assignment was no stranger to us.”

Evening Janitorial deployed a team of four, and under Kathy’ supervision over the course of several weeks, the janitorial crew worked to remove years of dirt and grime from every surface. Today, the site functions smoothly at top population with a daily cleaning crew from Evening Janitorial.

“They are doing a great job for us,” says Artemis facility manager Anna Goyne. “The husband-and-wife team Kathy sends over are so pleasant to work with. They are always smiling! We communicate well, and they keep us nice and clean every day.”

We’re proud to be a part of this international event. After the first regatta, which took place in August, Artemis Racing is well-positioned to take on the field and challenge the defending team — the Bay Area’s own Oracle — for the Cup next summer.

The next races are scheduled during Fleet Week, October 2 through 7. We’ll be on the Marina Green in San Francisco, cheering on the Artemis team. Maybe we’ll see you there!

For more about the America’s Cup and this week’s events, visit the following websites:
Artemis Racing
America’s Cup
Fleet Week website.