By Matthew Spieler
NEW YORK—What do flooring and baseball have in common? Everything if you are StarNet member Consolidated Carpet, the official flooring contractor for baseball’s N.Y. Mets, which is smack in the middle of constructing a new $800 million ballpark and executive offices for the team.

In addition to laying all the flooring for the new stadium starting this summer, Consolidated was also the official sponsor of the team’s 2008 Welcome Home Dinner to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) following the club’s first home game of the season earlier this month.

Dave Meberg, Consolidated’s president and CEO, said the company wanted to give back but for a good cause, and “this is a very good cause,” which is why it chose to be the official presenter of the event.

This was the third year the Mets held the dinner in honor of LLS, and even before the silent auction officially closed, it was announced the event broke a record with at least $800,000 raised during the evening. Since partnering with LLS, the team has raised over $2 million.

Alexandra Mayes Birnhaum, winner of LLS’ “Relentless for a Cure Award,” said the money raised is being put to good use. In 1964 the survival rate of Leukemia was 3%; today it is 90%. At the same time, the survival rate for people with any type of blood cancer has risen from 14% to over 50%. As for the Mets, she added, “They began giving back to the community from their very first day in existence.”

Meberg noted the contractor has done work for team owner Fred Wilpon’s real estate development company, Sterling Enterprises, over the years, and its caring nature is a main reason why Consolidated supports its efforts.

Giving back

One of the trademarks of Consolidated is its nature to give back and help its community as evidenced in its ConServe Reclamation Program. The company has been diverting materials from landfills long before it was in vogue, and since beginning the effort in the 1980s, it has become one of the leading carpet reclamation programs nationally. Through its efforts, almost 700,000 pounds of flooring materials were kept out of landfills just last year.

And Meberg is not resting, as he said the company plans to exceed keeping over one million pounds of used materials from landfills in 2008.

The ConServ program doesn’t just divert material, it is part of Consolidated’s efforts to give back whenever possible. The company donates used flooring to various charitable organizations such as the YMCA in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and the Nazareth House in downtown Manhattan.

Its legacy of giving goes beyond Consolidated’s New York borders. For example, the company donated 6,000 yards of carpeting as well as flooring materials for the rebuilding of seven firehouses in New Orleans as part of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

“It’s all part of helping to preserve our environment while at the same time donating to worthy causes,” Meberg explained.