Blue Bell executive to receive architecture foundation award
All Doug Hutchins was concerned with was making sure a group of students, learning of the wonders of architecture and design in Arkansas, had ice-cream treats to go along with that experience.
You could call Hutchins the Ice Cream Man, in fact. He has spent 41 years with Blue Bell Creameries, which is headquartered in Texas, and is now branch manager of the company’s North Little Rock offices.
At Blue Bell, “we can’t say yes to everybody that asks for a donation, or everybody that asks for a contribution of something,” Hutchins says. “But a product donation is something that’s easier for us to do, and we can help more people that way.
“There’s a lot of different organizations that we have participated with kind of on an annual basis. … We kind of do the same thing.”
That same thing is, give out ice cream. But hey, that’s just fine.
“We can just do so much with ice cream and it kind of opens a lot of doors, also,” Hutchins says.
Hutchins is one of six Heart and Treasure award recipients for Alex Foundation’s “Merging Architecture and Fashion” benefit and World Architecture Day observance, to take place Oct. 1 at the Center for Humanities and Arts (CHARTS), 3000 W. Scenic Drive, North Little Rock. Alex Foundation (alex-foundation. org) is a nonprofit whose mission is to introduce the architecture and design field, via various educational programs and activities, to students who might otherwise have no exposure to it.
The foundation’s celebration will include a fashion show, with architects and others as models; and the Heart and Treasure Awards — given to individuals, companies and organizations who have been consistent champions of its cause. Hutchins is one of two recipients in the Individuals at an Organization or Business category.
Other recipients are:
■ Janis F. Kearney, Celebrate! Maya Project (individuals at an organization or business)
■ Brad Chilcote and Russell Rudzinski (architects)
■ Heifer International and Garver Engineers (organization or business)
TEXAS TRANSPLANT
Like Blue Bell, Hutchins is a product of Texas, having grown up in the East Texas parishes overseen by his father, a Methodist minister.
Hutchins moved to the Natural State in 1997.
He learned about Alex Foundation several years ago, when its founder, Angela Courtney, contacted him asking if Blue Bell would donate ice cream for the foundation’s architecture and design summer-camp program, which allows seventh-graders to build skills in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) skills. The program was taking place in south Arkansas. Hutchins said yes, and the company made long-distance donations to the camps for a couple of years.
Last year, camp activities took place in Conway, Hutchins remembers. “It made it a lot more convenient for us. I was able to actually take the ice cream ... to Conway and got to see some of the projects that the students were working on over there.”
Then this year, camp activities were back in south Arkansas. “It was going to be difficult to get the ice cream down there. I just packed everything up one day and drove down there in my car with the ice cream.
“Once again, I got to see the students kind of in action down there,
what they were working on, and got to sit in on one of the presentations that another person was giving that day.”
Afterward, Courtney notified Hutchins of the award. “It was a surprise, that’s for sure. And [I] kind of felt honored for it. … We don’t give, or I don’t volunteer, just to get recognition out there. That’s not the purpose of it. It’s to actually give back.
“But I’m thankful and honored for the recognition.”
Outside Blue Bell, Hutchins is a longtime volunteer who has lent his efforts to his church, where he serves on the personnel, finance and vision committees. He also served on the board of what was then the American Lung Association’s Arkansas affiliate.
Hutchins is involved with the Arkansas Bar Association “in a roundabout way … through my wife.” Karen Hutchins works for the association and, through it, is also involved with other, related regional and national organizations. “So a lot of times I kind of refer to myself as the tag-along spouse. When she goes to these conferences or conventions or whatever, or events here just within the state, I’ll be there along with her.”
Hutchins’ parents didn’t push him, per se, into serving others during his childhood “but it was expected,” in light of his now-retired father’s calling, he says. “You could almost say his life’s work was [as a] volunteer. But anyway, just seeing what he did … I learned, just by watching him.”
What Hutchins learned was that volunteerism “gives you a chance to impact, or make an impact, with others. You can reach people that way.”
IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATION
Blue Bell philanthropy priorities have long celebrated education and spotlighted its importance, he says.
“Something that we’ve done for many, many years … is to honor those that are educating our youth.” The company does so via several different programs, one being Arkansas Teacher of the Year. Blue Bell reaches out to the schools where each of the regional finalists teach, telling them, “‘We would like to honor this teacher and your school with an ice cream party,’” Hutchins says. “We try to make it a surprise to the teacher.”
Someone at the school will find out that teacher’s favorite ice cream flavor. The company sets up a time to come out to the school and take the favored flavor to present to that teacher … along with ice-cream treats for everyone else. The Teacher of the Year ice cream parties were slated to begin this month. They have several per month; sometimes they spread them out to occur certain times of the year.
“We also do this for the Blue Ribbon Schools” — top Arkansas schools who receive this designation from the National Blue Ribbon Schools program. “We kind of think that those that are teaching the youth out there [are doing] a very, very important thing.”
Blue Bell also partners with the Arkansas Blood Institute for “A Pint for a Pint.” Each person who donates a pint of blood receives a pint of ice cream. In addition, the company will distribute ice cream samples to visitors at the forthcoming Thunder Over the Rock Air Show, slated for Oct. 21-22 at Little Rock Air Force Base.
“We have a very limited budget when it comes to actual cash contributions,” Hutchins says. “Like I say, I can do more, and I can reach more people, with a product donation.”
Per the Teacher of the Year finalists, Hutchins is the one going out to the schools with the ice cream and making a presentation before serving it to students and staff. At the air show, he and other company officials will go out, set up a display and hand out ice cream for both days.
“It’s a small group of people and so we all wear a lot of different hats. We all have to chip in and help out. We don’t have a large staff here to do this kind of project, and that one or that one. It’s just, we all chip in.”
THANK-YOU NOTES
Blue Bell has been presented with other awards and accolades for its gustatory generosity, but most acknowledgements have been in the form of thank-you letters, Hutchins says.
Back to the importance of education, Hutchins would like to see the Alex Foundation grow in its efforts to affect more children, especially those who might otherwise lack education, opportunity and means to enter the architecture and design fields.
“It’d be nice to see more of them get a chance to participate. You never know what what might strike someone’s interest ... and they may never have thought about studying this or making a career of that.”
The father of three remembers his oldest daughter, an aerospace engineer for NASA in San Francisco, attending a “women in engineering” presentation while a junior high student and hearing the message “‘If you’ve never thought about it, OK, there are opportunities for women in this field.’
“I’m not sure if that’s what struck with my daughter or not, but that’s the path that she took,” he says.
Alex Foundation “Merging Architecture and Fashion”benefit and World Architecture Day observance, 4-7 p.m. Oct. 1, Center for Humanities and Arts (CHARTS), 3000 W. Scenic Drive, North Little Rock. Tickets, $50, can be purchased online at eventbrite.com.