Cummins, Toyota donate $20,000 to four charities

Peter Anderson, left, vice president of global supply chain and manufacturing at Cummins, and Brett Wood, right, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, present Lisa Shafran, president of Turning Point Domestic Violence Services, with a check in the amount of $5,000 during a ceremony at the United Way of Bartholomew County building in Columbus, Ind., Monday, Dec. 16, 2019. Cummins and Toyota donated a combined $20,000 to four community organizations in Columbus and Hope. Mike Wolanin | The Republic

Two of Columbus’ largest employers have joined forces to make the holiday season a little brighter for clients of four local charities.

Executives from Cummins Inc. and Toyota Material Handling North America handed out $5,000 donation checks — $20,000 in total — from their companies in a ceremony Monday at the United Way offices at 13th Street and Hutchins Avenue, a renovated city fire station.

Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, and Peter Anderson, Cummins vice president of global supply chain and manufacturing, spoke briefly at a ceremony about the value of giving back to the community.

Then came “the fun part,” said Wood as he and Anderson prepared to hand out $5,000 checks to representatives from Turning Point Domestic Violence Services, Community Center of Hope, Human Service Inc. and Advocates for Children.

Cummins and Toyota Materials Handling North America each contributed $2,500 to each of the four organizations.

“We’re donating money today that might be short term, but the time that you spend and your people spend and groups spend helping families, helping children, just helping everyone have a little better life, to me, that’s a real long-term commitment,” said Wood, who later said he arrived in Indianapolis at 6 a.m. Monday morning on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to attend the Monday’s ceremony.

For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.