With a paint brush in one hand and a smile on his face, Steve Olson bore a look of contentment as he spread a fresh coat of red paint on a guard rail at Oak Harbor’s Olympic View Elementary School.

Around him were five dozen associates working toward a common goal.

“It’s awesome giving back to the community,” Olson said.

Olson was one of 65 employees from Forest City Enterprises participating in the real estate management and development company’s annual nationwide “community day” Wednesday, July 17.

Every year, Forest City targets a site in the communities in which it is based for service projects.

This year, the designated site in Puget Sound was Olympic View Elementary School in Oak Harbor.

Forest City is a property management partner at the three U.S. Naval bases in Puget Sound. The company built 359 units for military housing at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station in 2009 as part of a public-private venture with the Navy and still manages the property.

As part of a rotation between the naval communities, this time it was Oak Harbor’s turn for the community day event.

Scott Corley, maintenance superviser at Forest City, said he and many employees drive by Olympic View Elementary School along Regatta Drive multiple times a day and noticed it could use a little help with curb appeal.

He knew the majority of the children at the school were from military families. It turns out, nearly 80 percent are, according to Joe Hunt, communications director for the Oak Harbor School District.

“I saw an opportunity,” Corley said.

With an army of help, and generosity from vendors, that opportunity turned into a well-orchestrated makeover.

Employees from the Oak Harbor, Poulsbo and Everett locations teamed up to tackle 11 different projects at  Olympic View. Projects ranged from repainting a mural of the United States map on the courtyard to rebuilding a playground wall for games to pruning juniper bushes. Workers also dug into the earth and carved out base paths on the baseball diamond, pressure-washed and painted.

Sherwin-Williams donated paint. Brickman landscaping company gave truckloads of beauty bark. Maillards Landing nursery and Home Depot also contributed to the project.

New Oak Harbor schools superintendent Lance Gibbon came out to watch the transformation.

“The way a school looks really makes a difference in how students, staff, and community feel about their school,” Gibbon said. “Forest City’s work at Olympic View Elementary looks great and is really going to make a positive difference for our kids.”

Crescent Harbor Elementary School’s playground got a makover in 2009 the last time Forest City tackled a community day project in Oak Harbor.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Forest City’s community day event.

One day a year, workers are paid to help with a project in a designated community. Wednesday’s project started at 7 a.m. and wrapped up around 5 p.m.

“Many hands make light work,” one Forest City employee said after taking a break from working in the flower bed.

Corley liked the idea of helping Olympic View and walked the grounds with school principal Laura Aesoph to identify areas of most need.

“With my job as a maintenance manager, I was trying to find places where if you put some resources you can make a difference,” Corley said. “I thought all this needed was a little bit of resources.”