AKRON—Goodyear celebrated the wrap-up and results of its inaugural Week of Volunteering, which ran from June 1-7.
A total of 1,242 Goodyear employees, retirees and family members volunteered across six communities, including Akron and five additional countries: Brazil, China, Indonesia, Romania and Ukraine.
"Our first Week of Volunteering was an incredible success that brought our company's approach toward giving back in our communities, Goodyear Better Future, to life," said Alison White, Goodyear's director of community engagement. "Goodyear associates are the foundation of our company's commitment to our communities and we are grateful for their contributions of time, skills and resources on behalf of Goodyear. We truly couldn't have done it without them."
Goodyear volunteers gave more than 6,000 hours of service, equating to nearly $30,000 worth of time to complete 69 projects that served a variety of community needs involving both general and skills-based volunteerism.
The majority of volunteer activities occurred in Akron, where more than 1,000 volunteers gave more than 5,000 hours through 12 non-profit organizations and professional development workshops. Twenty percent of those hours directly benefitted area youth through safety and STEM education programs with Akron's Children Hospital, Boys & Girls Club of the Western Reserve, Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio, Akron Public Schools NIHF STEM Middle School and City of Akron Peacemakers. Goodyear volunteers engaged with students through STEM carnivals, career days, in-class lessons and at road-safety events.
Akron volunteers contributed more than 70 percent of their hours to sustainability projects, which included: repacking enough food at the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank to provide more than 33,000 meals to families in need; beautifying landmark areas of Akron, including Lock 2, with the Downtown Akron Partnership and Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition and completing nearly three-years-worth of maintenance work at the YMCA Camp Y-Noah.
Skills-based projects included opportunities for non-profit organizations to participate in professional development workshops led by Goodyear employees. Goodyear volunteers also worked with the Red Cross of Summit, Portage and Medina Counties installing smoke alarms to improve home safety for at-risk populations.
Goodyear Better Future, the company's corporate social responsibility strategy, focuses on supporting programs that are safe, smart and sustainable and meaningfully engage employees to create positive outcomes in the community.