Cat employees giving back in Summer of Service
- Details
- Published on Friday, 17 June 2016 16:54
- Written by Paul Gordon
It was a beautiful morning on Friday, the kind of day that would make anyone want to get away from work and stay outdoors. For 22 employees in Caterpillar Inc.’s Global Supply Network division, that’s what happened.
But they would have been at Glen Oak Park on the east side of the lagoon regardless of the weather. They were volunteering on a project that helps them – and the company – give back to the community by doing something others may not want or be able to do.
These 22 volunteers in bright yellow t-shirts used basic gardening tools to clean out more than 100 feet of brush from the east side of the lagoon so the water and the fountain could be seen and enjoyed from an area of the park that hasn’t had that pleasure for a while.
“It was overwhelming at first, when we got here and saw how much needed to be cleared out,” said Amanda Scott, a transportation analyst for Caterpillar for two years. “Now, two hours later, it’s unbelievable how much we’ve gotten done. It looks nice.”
These 22 were just a small portion of the 500 employees who have signed on to various projects in Caterpillar’s first Summer of Service. The Glen Oak project was the first but many more are scheduled throughout the summer as part of the Summer of Service project the company devised as a way of giving back, said Pete Chambers, an energy and commodity analyst for the company and one of the volunteer coordinators.
“There are many of us at Caterpillar who volunteer for different things in the community. We formed this small committee after we were challenged by our leadership to think big. And we came to realize that when we work together we can accomplish a lot. We want to live our values through our actions and this gives us the opportunity to do that,” Chambers said.
“This community is so important to Caterpillar we feel it is our duty to give back one way or another. This gives us those opportunities while also helping to build teamwork within our division. It also gives us a chance to get to know each other. We are in three facilities around Peoria and there are people from all of them in the group,” said Chambers, who was born and raised in Peoria.
Caterpillar plans to take the Summer of Service program and share it with employees in other parts of the world where the company does business. Chambers said that is good stewardship because the company believes it is important to do good works in the communities where its employees live and work.
When work started on Friday, shortly after 8 a.m., one could not see the lagoon or water fountain from the roadway on the east side of the water. By 11 a.m., one could not only see through the remaining trees but could walk through them and down the slope to reach it.
“It look beautiful from up here, now,” Scott said. “This is a great way of showing the community that we care. This won’t be my last time doing this.”
Future projects include other clean-up opportunities, including in July when volunteers plans to clear brush and debris from the Meadow Valley Trail in Washington because the debris is hindering the growth of new trees that were planted to replace some ripped out by the November 2013 tornado, Chamber said. So far, 30 projects are in the works in the Peoria area and central Illinois, including in Hanna City and Bloomington.
The Summer of Service’s first year culminates in September, but Chamber said he is sure it will resume next year.
