While donating to worthy organizations is already an enjoyable act, American RENOLIT decided to make donating even more fun by holding a friendly, internal competition to collect donations for The Pax Center. This March Madness event for American RENOLIT’s first-quarter donation took place Monday through Friday from March 1 to 26.
Through this competition, employees got to go head-to-head against their co-workers from other shifts. Talent Acquisition and Employee Engagement Specialist Heather Glanz said, “The staff enjoyed the competition so much that they did not settle for battling against only other shifts and took it a step further.”
“The competition out on the floor was so great to watch. I mean, we even had teammates on the same team competing against each other,” Glanz laughed.
The employee’s warm reception of this first-quarter donation can, in part, be attributed to a clever idea a few years prior. In 2017, Glanz made a survey for employees to fill out. The survey was created to determine what type of community involvement interested employees most, so that leaders could find avenues for American RENOLIT to give back to the community in way that employees would engage with.
After being filled out by the staff, the survey revealed a high interest in organizing food drives. With this knowledge, American RENOLIT decided to donate to The Pax Center which would, in turn, provide for the needs of families and individuals in La Porte struggling with food insecurity.
American RENOLIT had boxes staged for shifts where employees could put their donations, and specific items were requested each day according to the needs of The Pax Center. Much of the donations were non-perishable food items like peanut butter, jelly, cereal, and canned goods, but hygiene products like shampoo, conditioner, toilet paper, Kleenex, and deodorant were also accepted.
At the conclusion of a month of competition, Shift C was declared the winner after contributing 1,080 of the 2,226 donations collected for The Pax Center. The Shift C champions were awarded a trophy made by Scotty’s Dynamic Designs, received a meal from Northside BBQ, and celebrated with co-workers.
“We had doughnuts and coffee and all the office employees came out of their offices,” Glanz said. “When the C Shift walked down the hall, we had ‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen playing, and all the office employees were clapping and cheering them on.”
Glanz shared that this is the first food drive she has organized and there was a bit of a learning curve involved in labeling and counting all the donations. The company is still deciding how it wants to give back in its second quarter. Regardless of how American RENOLIT decides to engage with the community in the future, Glanz is proud of how well the staff did with this most recent donation.
“Our employees stepped up and made it fun. They were constantly asking me who was in the lead, and they cared about The Pax Center getting the donations,” Glanz said. “We had three truckfuls of stuff that we delivered to Jason Clemons and took pictures, got information about The Pax Center, and put flyers on our board. Being able to explain what The Pax Center does helps us to give back to the La Porte Community.”
To learn more about American RENOLIT and how it gives back to the community, visit its website at https://www.renolit.com/laporte.
