Tools for Schools is a two-week school supply drive that is held at various businesses and organizations throughout St. Johns County and on Friday, August 13th its bus, escorted by Donna Lueders, Executive Director of the St. John’s County Education Foundation, arrived at the ST Augustine, FL facility.
Hydro employees got to work, loading over 10,500 school supply items collected during the two-week drive. By the time all the supplies had been loaded, the plant had literally stuffed the bus.
“We should all be impressed at the level of team work shown by everyone here at Hydro during this project,” said Carrie Gainor, Purchasing agent and fundraising coordinator. “As a team we exceeded last year's total number of items donated by 2,900 items – and it's important to note we did this with 100 less employees. Our 2010 total number of items collected was 10,924 - GREAT job everyone!”
To encourage donations, a collection contest was established. Employees devised a plan to divide into teams, with the team averaging the most items winning a pizza luncheon. By the time all the donations were loaded, the Hydro challenge had turned into a ‘WIN’ for the children of St. John’s County, along with Team Fab, (averaging 78.8 items per person) who, for a second year in a row, claims bragging rights as the supreme team in fundraising efforts, and a pizza luncheon.
Acknowledging the support from vendors, Gainor expressed her gratitude to Thumb Tool for contributing $250, Exco Extrusion Dies for contributing $100, along with Mid-South Extrusion Dies and Anich Industries for helping stuff the bus. “I want to thank our vendors for their support to the local community. Not only do we have caring generous employees here at Hydro, we also have great partners.”
Hydro’s Community Services Committee completes monthly projects to benefit the local community. Recent projects include a record setting blood drive, a boat trailer built and donated to SPARS and ongoing projects that support St. Francis House. Most recently bike racks were built and donated to the new Boys & Girls Club in St Augustine.
Supply donations are sorted before being distributed to local schools. This effort is expected to help more than 2,500 children
