The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
LUBRIZOL EMPLOYEES VOLUNTEER SERVICES
Annual Building Bonds event assists nonprofit groups throughout Northeast Ohio
About 75 employees of Lubrizol Corp. spent the day at Camp Burton in Burton Township on June 7.
But they weren’t swimming, going on nature hikes or lounging around in the cabins.
Instead, these employees spent the day performing building construction and maintenance and landscaping projects as part of Lubrizol Corp.’s Building Bonds volunteer day.
A total of about 500 employees from Lubrizol’s four Northeast Ohio locations — in Wickliffe, Painesville Township, Avon Lake and Brecksville — participated in volunteer projects at eight locations in Geauga, Lake, Cuyahoga and Lorain counties. Work sites ranged from the Lucy Idol Center, a treatment and habilitation center for adults with development disabilities, which is
based in Vermilion; to Hospice of the Western Reserve in Cleveland. Lubrizol also sponsored a project at its Wickliffe plant and headquarters during which employees could work on making blankets for Project Linus. This initiative provides blankets for children who are seriously ill.
“For the past 12 years, Lubrizol’s Building Bonds day of service has become the company’s signature community engagement event in Northeast Ohio,” said Mark Sutherland, director of public affairs for the specialty chemical manufacturer. “Employee leaders have been working for several months to plan projects, assemble the necessary resources and outline the work assignments at the eight locations.”
Sutherland said the employee teams arrived at each location on the morning of June 7 “ready to pitch in and make a difference in the communities where they work and live.”
Lubrizol employees who offered their services as part of the daylong program said they found Building Bonds to be a rewarding experience.
Those Lubrizol employees who volunteered at Camp Burton also assisted Camp Sue Osborn, a program for special-needs children and adults from Lake and Geauga counties. Camp Burton is the host of Camp Sue Osborn’s annual summer residence camp for its clients.
“This touches my heart in a huge way,” said Dawn Majors, president of the Camp Sue Osborn Board of Directors, as she toured the site and watched Lubrizol employees perform projects that included new decks, doors, ramps, stairs, flooring and more easily accessible sink faucets. “The Lubrizol volunteers are doing
great improvements that are going to make things much more accessible to our campers.”
Lubrizol employees who offered their services as part of the daylong program said they found Building Bonds to be a rewarding experience.
Kevin Bendele is a supply chain planner at Lubrizol’s Wickliffe plant. Bendele said he’s worked at Lubrizol for 10 years and thinks that he’s missed only one of the annual Building Bonds events.
“It’s nice to give back to the community,” Bendele said as he took a break from using a string trimmer on a patch of grass and weeds. “It’s also nice that Lubrizol lets us do something like this that’s good for Lake and Geauga counties.”
Lori Armstrong, an employee in the accounts receivables department at Lubrizol’s Brecksville plant, was participating in a Building Bonds event for the first time.
“I like to help the community whenever I can,” Armstrong said, as she helped paint a building on the Camp Burton property.
For Mary Jane Sanders, a community specialist at Lubrizol’s Painesville Township plant, the June 7 event at Camp Burton marked her 10th year as a Building Bonds team leader. Sanders said she enjoys how the program creates connections.
“What I like about is we get to make new relationship and friendships not only with co-workers we don’t normally see, but also make partnerships with community and nonprofit organizations,” she said.
Camp Burton is a 120acre property located on Butternut Road that opened 61 years ago. Dave Scull, director of the camp, expressed his gratitude to Lubrizol employees who labored at the property throughout the day.
“The camp survives off of the generosity of others,” Scull said. “It’s a nonprofit and we have a very limited staff ... there’s always a continual list of to-dos to be done. When someone is able to come out and bless us with a skilled labor force that can do a lot of projects in a short period of time, it helps us better the serve people who come to camp.”