Toyota Material Handling North America made a wish come true for a 12-year-old Indianapolis boy fighting cancer, welcoming the young man as CEO for the day.
About 300 employees lined the hallways of Toyota Material Handling North America’s facility in Columbus on Wednesday morning awaiting the arrival of a black limousine.
The employees, creating a tunnel of light sabers, were ready to welcome a special guest to the company’s facility — Michael Haley, who has a rare form of brain cancer.
Officials from Toyota Material Handling, along with representatives from Make-A-Wish Foundation, brought Michael, his parents Joe and Melissa and his three younger siblings, Henry, Clare and Joey, from Indianapolis to the Columbus Toyota headquarters to make Haley “CEO for the day” and grant his wish to go with his family to the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas.
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The boy was diagnosed with multiple brain tumors last year and has had surgery to remove a large tumor. He continues to receive chemotherapy once a week.
When Haley and his family stepped out of the limousine, employees applauded and cheered. A bevy of employees gave Michael high-fives as he was led to a rotunda near the entrance, where Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, welcomed him and his family to the facility.
CEO for the day
A smile beamed across Michael’s face as Wood explained to him that he would be CEO for a day and that several surprises awaited him along the way.
Wood and others presented Michael with an assortment of gifts, including a football autographed by Brian Kelly, head coach of the University of Notre Dame football team.
“We’re big believers in family,” Wood told Michael. “A big part of Toyota culture is to be like a big family. And after today you’re now a part of the Toyota family.”
Wood gave Michael an employee badge and key card and led him and his family to his office and had the newly appointed “CEO” sit at his desk.
Wood gave Michael two tasks — choose the social media post that the company would send out in commemoration of his visit and select an organization that the company would make a donation to as part of its monthly “Dollars for Denim” fundraising campaign in which employees could donate money so they could wear jeans on the last Friday of the month. The company selects a different charity each month.
Michael was asked to choose the charity the company would donate to in November, the month of his birthday. Michael said he chose the Bartholomew County Humane Society over Riley Hospital for Children or the Ronald McDonald House because he likes dogs.
Next, Michael was taken on a guided tour of the Toyota Material Handling’s facility, where he learned how forklifts and the company’s other products were assembled.
He also experimented with some of the company’s newest technology, including a robot controlled via a virtual reality interface that Wood said was a prototype for technology that could be used to control forklifts in the future.
The big reveal
Then came the main event. Michael, who is big Star Wars fan, and his family went into Toyota’s theater, where Wood told them that the company had raised enough money to send them to the Bahamas.
Then the lights went off and the projector and the wall behind it began to lift into the ceiling as the Star Wars theme song played. On the other side of the wall were several people portraying characters from the Star Wars movies, including a Jedi and an Imperial storm trooper.
Afterwards, Michael said it was “cool” to be CEO for the day.
Meeting the Star Wars characters was among his favorite parts of the day and that he was excited about the trip to the Bahamas, especially to experience a “shark slide” which is a 60-foot-long covered slide at the Atlantis Resort that flows into a shark-filled lagoon, according to the resort’s website. He said he was not nervous about being submerged underwater in a clear tube surrounded by sharks.
“I just want everybody to know how much we appreciate you taking Michael under your wing,” said Joe Haley, Michael’s father. “I know how hard it is to dedicate a cause to someone you’ve never met. There is not a more deserving kid, and as a family, we really appreciate everything Make-A-Wish (Foundation) has done for us.”
How they did it
Wednesday’s event was the culmination of three months of fundraising efforts by Toyota Material Handling and its workers to make Michael’s wish come true, said Shelley Bramlett, Wood’s executive assistant and coordinator of the company’s Make-A-Wish initiative.
In February, officials from Toyota Material Handling set a goal to raise $7,500 for the family. If the goal was met, the company would donate an additional $7,500 for a total of $15,000.
The company held a corn hole tournament in February and a golf scramble at Timbergate Golf Course in April.
Toyota Material Handling employees participated in a “Dollars for Denim” campaign in which employees could donate money so they could wear jeans on the last Friday of the month, Bramlett said. Company officials also auctioned off parking spaces, allowing the highest bidder to park in a designated spot for one month. One particularly coveted parking space close to the facility’s entrance fetched some $350, Bramlett said.
By the end of April, the company’s employees had raised nearly $22,000, nearly tripling their goal.
Approximately $12,000 of the funds that the employees raised will fund the Haleys’ trip to the Bahamas (including accommodation, air fare and meals), and an additional $8,000 will be used to send a 9-year-old Bartholomew County boy and his family on a Disney Cruise as part of the Make-A-Wish program. The remaining $2,000 was used to pay for the CEO for the day event, including food, gifts, chartering the limousine, among other expenses. Because the employees met their fundraising goal, Toyota Material Handling will make a separate donation of $7,500 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Company officials are still working out the details for both trips, but each one will last approximately five to seven days, Bramlett said.
The trip to the Bahamas was the third wish that Toyota Material Handling and its local workers have granted. The first granted wish sent a 6-year-old girl and her family to Disneyland. The second involved completing a backyard makeover for a 3-year-old boy in 2018.
Wood said it was rewarding to help Michael and his family and see how happy the boy was to have his wish granted.
“There a lot of needy families and children who have illnesses and don’t have things that maybe other kids have,” Wood said. “I think it’s important for companies like Toyota and communities like (Columbus) to support those that are less fortunate. Partnering with a great organization like Make-A-Wish (Foundation) to see the smiles that they bring to their kids and families is a great feeling for us. We’re just honored and we’re humbled to be able to deliver this type of wish and to make a family kind of forget some of the challenges they’re faced with.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Make-A-Wish ” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
To learn more about the Make-A-Wish Foundation, visit https://wish.org/.
[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About Toyota Material Handling” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Toyota Material Handling offers a full line of material handling products, including forklifts, reach trucks, order pickers, pallet jacks, container handlers, automated guided vehicles and two tractors, along with aerial work platforms, fleet management services and advanced automation engineering and design.
For more information, visit ToyotaForklift.com.
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