Photograph by Ellman Photography.
Fort Worth, TX – Six hundred Mercedes-Benz Financial Services employees mobilized across the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, volunteering to make a positive difference with 12 local nonprofit organizations during the week of Sept. 21, 2015. This was the third annual Week of Caring for the company, whose Business Operations Center is located in Fort Worth. Week of Caring is a weeklong community service campaign that the automotive financial services company has organized as part of its corporate commitment to make a difference in the communities where its team members live and work.
The volunteer projects were selected by employees and varied from helping elementary students, senior citizens, the underprivileged and the hungry. In addition, the company presented a $50,000 check to REAL School Gardens at Cannon Elementary School in Grapevine, Texas for a brand new learning garden. Eighty-five employees from Mercedes-Benz Financial Services volunteered to build the garden from the ground up. The garden will be a great science-learning tool for the students, where a variety of hands-on activities will be engaging tools to learn math, science and language arts. Statistics show that school learning gardens improve grades and test scores by 12 to 15 percent.
Jai Kately was excited to give back to a school he attended Sagamore Hill Elementary. He joined 34 of his coworkers in spending the day building individual bookshelves for 300 first graders to take home. The volunteers helped the youngsters decorate the bookshelves with paint and pick out two books to start their home library.
“I grew up poor in this neighborhood, so I know what it is like for these students,” Kately said. “I want to do what I can to help them.” Kately has found ways to volunteer in the East Fort Worth community on his own as well for the past decade.
Some of the volunteer projects took place at the Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Fort Worth Business Operations Center. One large conference room at the facility was turned into an assembly line for the Kids Against Hunger program. More than 24,000 meals for children and families in need were packaged by 35 employees. The packaged ingredients include fortified soy and rice casserole-style meals, specifically formulated to meet the nutritional needs of a starving child. All the food packaged was delivered to the Tarrant Area Food Bank.
Employee Grace Gallegos was proud to be a part of the Week of Caring.
“I got involved because I wanted to help with the cause of providing food to families here in North Texas and around the world,” Gallegos said. “This is such a small sacrifice for us to take time out of our day to take part in the worthy volunteer project.”
Mercedes-Benz Financial Services President and CEO Peter Zieringer is proud of the dedication employees had in improving their communities.
“The Week of Caring is one of my favorite weeks of the year, because it is gratifying to see the impact our team members have when they roll up their sleeves and give back to worthy organizations doing great work,” said Zieringer. “In just five days, my fellow colleagues clocked nearly 4,000 hours of service benefitting 12 different community partners in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.”
Other organizations helped by the volunteers include the Community Food Bank in Fort Worth, Don’t Forget to Feed Me, Spark! Dallas, Community Storehouse in Fort Worth, SafeHaven in Arlington and Fort Worth, Junior Achievement of Chisholm Trail, Trinity Habitat for Humanity, Tarrant Area Food Bank, and the Senior Citizens Services of Tarrant County.
Week of Caring is a nationwide commitment for the company. Volunteers from the company’s headquarters, located in Farmington Hills, Mich., also participated in weeklong projects at the same time. Since 2013, more than 75 volunteer projects, spanning 25,000 hours of service have been provided. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services is focused on building long-term partnerships with organizations committed to creating positive social change in the areas of education, community enhancement, arts & culture, and diversity & inclusion.
