During the COVID-19 pandemic, Lockheed Martin employees have helped restore trails in state parks, manufactured personal protective equipment for people working on the front lines of the pandemic and provided online lessons in science, technology, engineering and math to Colorado students.

The aerospace company will receive a Governor’s Citizenship Medal during a ceremony this week in recognition of its positive impact on Colorado. Nominated by Mile High United Way, Lockheed Martin will be presented with the Corporate Citizenship Medal.

“Our social impact strategy and corporate social responsibility, to be part of the communities where we live and work, is built into our DNA as a company,” said Kelly Collins, associate manager of community relations. “From our corporate charitable giving, to volunteering, to working with STEM education, military veterans and community resilience.”

Lockheed Martin’s Waterton campus, in the hills of Waterton Canyon near southwest metro Denver, is home base for about 8,000 of the company’s 11,000 Colorado employees. It also recently expanded to 650,000 square feet of office space on a 25-acre campus near Lucent Boulevard and C-470.

The company (NYSE: LMT) has had a presence in Colorado for more than 60 years. It designed and built the aeroshell, which protected the NASA Mars Perseverance rover during entry, descent and landing a year ago. It also is involved in NASA’s upcoming moon missions, and late last year was part of the NASA spacecraft Lucy’s launch to explore the ancient Trojan asteroids near Jupiter.

In 2020, Lockheed Martin employees volunteered nearly 23,000 hours across the state and the company donated more than $1.3 million to Colorado nonprofits, said Jenna McMullin, vice president of communications for Lockheed Martin Space. In 2021, the company logged 30,000 volunteer hours and donated $750,000 to local charities.

“Our employees have an incredible passion getting involved,” McMullin said. “It’s very much a point of pride to be out there in the community. We’re more than a corporate citizen — we’re Colorado citizens and much of that work is done in their free time.”

Lockheed Martin employees have worked with Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado. In 2021, Lockheed Martin volunteers did trail restoration in Chatfield State Park, near the Audubon Center and Waterton campus, and built a new trail in the Evergreen area of Denver Mountain Parks, which will be used for youth activities.

During the pandemic, the company ramped up its efforts to have its engineers lead online STEM education with local school districts. Its employees made around 22,000 pieces of personal protective equipment for front-line workers.

“In some cases, we provided grants for schools to purchase hardware to help with online teaching, activated some (Wi-Fi) hot spots for homes and communities,” Collins said. “We tried to meet the schools’ need where they were.”

It also organized one of the flyovers popular during the pandemic as a fundraiser for Gov. Jared Polis’ Help Colorado Fund. It matched donations up to $500,000, Collins said.

“It was a little morale boost for the community, and helped raise awareness for the fund,” Collins said. “The past two years have been incredibly challenging for many because of the pandemic. Lockheed Martin really tried to step in and help the community.”