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Utah companies engage in business of helping the community

Bankers clad in T-shirts and jeans showered low-income children with attention. Radio and TV employees escorted children from one of Utah’s poorest neighborhoods to a fun-filled day at Hogle Zoo. And scores of other workers repaired, cleaned and refurbished community service agencies along the Wasatch Front.

By Lesley Mitchell
The Salt Lake Tribune

A lot can happen when more than 2,200 people working for 87 Utah companies take paid time off as they did Friday to participate in community service projects in Salt Lake City, Tooele and Summit counties for the United Way of Salt Lake.

Even though companies are cutting back to make ends meet, many still recognize the importance of community service, said Colleen Barnes of United Way.

There were 12 more companies participating in United Way Day this year than in 2002.

"Given the tough times, we think it’s a pretty strong show of support," she said.

At Guadalupe Schools on Salt Lake City’s west side, employees of Abbott Laboratories painted while Key Bank employees closed some branches for half the day to provide children with much-appreciated, one-on-one attention.

Ron Jensen, a Key Bank sales manager, spent the morning playing games with children and listening to them read.

"It really gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling to work with the kids like this," he said as he shared a hot-dog lunch with children who peppered him with questions about his life as a banker. "You can tell they really want the attention."

Many of the children attending the school have never been in a bank, let alone spent time with someone who works in one, said Mike Albritton, executive director of Guadalupe Schools.

"That’s what makes what these people are doing so important," he said. "It’s a very important learning experience for the children, who also are having a lot of fun."

Working in shifts, Bank One employees Friday helped out at the Utah Food Bank.

Their contribution did not stop there. About 82 percent of the bank’s approximately 400 Utah employees contributed to United Way in the agency’s fund-raising campaign this year, up from 57 percent the previous year, Bank One spokeswoman Mary Jane H. Rogers said.

Companies such as Bank One helped United Way raise $8 million in its last fund-raising campaign, about the same as the year before, Barnes said. Those who commit their employees also provide a valuable service in helping nonprofit agencies handle the increased needs of people during an economic downturn, she said.

Indeed, many companies not only contributed the labor, but the materials needed to complete projects.

At the Salt Lake Interfaith Hospitality Network, workers from several companies painted, cleaned, added landscaping and helped repair the agency’s Family Promise Learning Center at 814 W. 800 South.

"We would have had to pay a lot of money to get this work done," said Vicki Neumann, director. "We just couldn’t do it on such a small budget."

Like many companies, the Kern River Gas Transmission Co. in Salt Lake City offers at least one day of paid time off a year as part of a corporate community service policy. Dozens of employees took the company up on that offer Friday to help spruce up the Family Promise Learning Center.

One of those employees, Boyd Schow, a senior technical specialist, found it gratifying to watch bare spots around the center spruced up with sod and shrubs.

"It changes the way the whole place looks," he said.

Neumann said the way community service organizations look lifts the spirits of the people they serve.

"I hope they understand what a difference this all makes to the people we are trying to help." %%%% More than 200 Utah businesses have joined a nationwide effort to promote organ donation among their employees.

Tommy Thompson, U.S. secretary of health and human services, two years ago created the program, called Workplace Partners. Companies can become workplace partners by actively promoting organ donation among their employees.

Nationally, states average only about 150 to 160 companies actively promoting organ donation through the program compared with 200 for Utah, said Lisa Hawthorne, public education director for The Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation.

Four Utah companies — Usana Health Sciences, Associated Food Stores, C.R. England Trucking and Merit Medical — were honored for steps they took as part of the national effort.

Usana, for example, offers a 30-day paid leave of absence to employees who want to donate a kidney to save someone’s life. Roughly two-thirds of people waiting for an organ transplant need a kidney.

Associated Food Stores and Merit Medical have donor education programs, while hundreds of employees at C.R. England Trucking have registered as donors on the Utah Donor Registry.

— Lesley Mitchell

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Sep/09132003/utah/92209.asp

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