Two of Columbus’ largest employers have joined forces to make the holiday season 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 Services Inc. and Advocates for Children.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
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. He said he arrived in Indianapolis at 6 a.m. Monday morning on a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to attend Monday’s ceremony.
Cummins Chairman and CEO Tom Linebarger was originally scheduled to attend Monday’s event but could not be there, sending Anderson to represent the company in his place.
The idea for the two companies to team up for a special event at Christmas happened in 2018, the result of a casual conversation between Linebarger and Wood who talked about how two of Columbus’ most prominent industries could donate to some of the area’s most hard-working service organizations.
In a first for both of them in 2018, the top executives for Cummins and Toyota Material Handling North America together distributed $5,000 donation checks — $20,000 in total — from their companies, with Linebarger and Wood handing out the checks. The first four recipients last year were the Salvation Army, Lincoln-Central Family Neighborhood Center, United Way 2-1-1 and the Columbus Firemen’s Cheer Fund.
Anderson said it was an “honor” to attend this year’s event on behalf of Cummins and hear about the work this year’s recipients are doing in the community.
“It was more of a tap on the shoulder about a quarter past 11,” Anderson said of his selection to hand out of the checks on behalf of Cummins. “It’s more than a worthy cause. I changed my whole afternoon around to be able to participate in this.”
“It’s great to be able to support the community, especially as we’re approaching the holiday,” Anderson said.
‘A Christmas miracle’
Representatives from each of the charities spoke about what the donation meant to each organization and how they planned to use the money.
Lisa Shafran, who leads Turning Point, said the $5,000 donation was like a “Christmas miracle” for her organization’s clients.
Shafran said that Turning Point plans to use the money to help last-minute clients with a host of services, including helping with rent payments, transportation, heating, gifts, among other things that will make their clients’ holiday “merrier.”
“It’s going to allow us to do things that we thought were not going to be possible,” said Shafran, who at times was at a loss for words.
Cruz Baisa, vice president of the Advocates for Children board, said the donation from the two companies will be used for make sure the children the agency serves will have what they need for Christmas and winter weather.
“We use this money to make sure that all our kids have what they need for Christmas,” Baisa said. “If they need a coat, they need a hat, they need gloves, or maybe if they’re not going to have any toys under the tree, we want to make sure they have a gift or two. The plan is to make sure they have what they need and make then make their Christmas a little bit brighter.”
Chelsea Warriner, executive director of the Community Center of Hope, said the money her organization received will be used for the group’s food pantry, child care center and other needs.
Additionally, Michele Lee, director of homeless prevention at Human Services Inc., said the donation will be used to help fund seven different homeless programs, including Horizon House.
Wood expressed his gratitude for the work the four organizations do in the community, as well as the team of volunteers to put in the time to help out.
“What would the world be like without volunteers? What would our communities be like?” Wood said. “These people deserve so much more than the money that we’re giving them. They deserve a lot of credit for the time that they donate.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”This year’s recipients” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Cummins Inc. and Toyota Materials Handling North America each donated $2,500 to the following organizations:
- Turning Point
- Community Center of Hope
- Human Services Inc.
- Advocates for Children
[sc:pullout-text-end]
