Toyota employees lift the community

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Employees of Toyota Material Handling could be seen across Seymour and Columbus on Friday volunteering their time to give back to the community.

It was the Columbus company’s inaugural Toyota Lift the Community Day. In 10 locations in Columbus and two in Seymour, Toyota workers were landscaping, picking up litter and carrying out many other tasks to beautify and strengthen areas of Jackson and Bartholomew counties.

“It’s essentially just an opportunity for everybody in the company to volunteer on the same day, use their paid volunteer hours and get out and get as many people volunteering in the community as possible,” said Justin Albers, a corporate communications and public relations specialist for the company.

While Toyota employees were out in the community, the factory was shut down, something that happens every July. Normally, factory associates would have to take mandatory vacation.

The idea of having a day of community outreach came from the company wanting to offer a day for workers to volunteer during the shutdown.

Toyota is split between a manufacturing side and a sales and marketing side. Albers said until this year, office associates got 16 paid volunteer hours. This year, eight hours were made available to shop associates.

“Basically, the concept behind lift the community day was to offer a single day during the July shutdown where all 1,600 associates had the opportunity to volunteer at different locations,” Albers said.

He said he expects Toyota Lift the Community Day to be an annual event, and a bigger turnout is expected in the future because of further notice being given to employees.

This year, two months’ notice about the day of volunteering was given to employees, so some had already planned for vacations.

Everyone who participated in Lift the Community Day wore orange shirts to commemorate the date and occasion.

“Toyota’s founding principle, the reason we exist, is to contribute to society,” said TMH President Jeff Rufener. “We are humbled by the opportunity to give back to many of the charitable organizations that support the communities in which we live and work every day.”

Some locations in Columbus that volunteers went to were Orphan Grain Train, Lincoln Central Neighborhood Family Center and Mill Race Center.

In Seymour, some went to the Boys and Girls Club, while others attended a golf scramble for Anchor House Family Assistance Center and Pantry.

Alli Quintero-Auel, a training and development specialist for the company, was a team leader for a group of volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club. The Seymour resident said she appreciated time being dedicated to both cities since she commutes to Columbus.

She said it felt “really great” to be able to volunteer and it was nice seeing people get back together as the global pandemic subsides.

One person particularly thankful for the work done at the Boys and Girls Club was Amanda Williams, the director of impact for the facility.

“I just love seeing the community come out and help out the kids and do whatever they can for the kids, even though (the kids) might not realize how much people are helping,” she said. “It’s just nice to have extra hands out here.”

The work done at the Boys and Girls Club included spreading mulch and adding a ladder to the playground, weed eating, mowing and cleaning out a closet of accumulated items.

Gerald Morrow, a logistics and supply chain manager, was spreading mulch on the facility’s playground with co-worker Jeff Fritsch, a senior manager in new product development.

Both reside in Seymour and were glad to volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club because of their histories with the organization and the convenience of them living in the same city as the facility.

A member of the Boys and Girls Club growing up, Morrow said the organization is a good resource for the community.

Fritsch said his son comes to the Boys and Girls Club occasionally, and he wanted to give back to the club because it’s a good organization.

Brownstown resident Brandon Davidson, a welder for Toyota Material Handling, helped edge a sidewalk in front of the Boys and Girls Club.

He said it was nice of Toyota to have a day of volunteering, and it felt good to help out and give back because some jobs are harder to keep up with than others.

“It’s hard to find time to edge a sidewalk or weed eat 700 feet of fence,” he said.

In total, just under 200 Toyota Associates participated in Toyota Material Handling’s first-ever ‘Lift the Community Day’ on Friday, providing about 1,300 hours of service to 12 different organizations in Columbus and Seymour. Volunteers also donated 54 units of blood, which will impact 162 lives, donated approximately 1,000 pounds of food to Love Chapel in Columbus, and trained 3 new disaster action team members for the American Red Cross.

According to toyotaforklift.com, Toyota Material Handling has assembled North America’s leading forklifts in Columbus since 1990. Since then, Toyota has manufactured more than 700,000 forklifts in the United States.

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