Global outdoor lifestyle brand Timberland believes in activating people to transform the world with powerful tools like community service. Through the company’s award-winning Path of Service™ program, first launched in 1992, employees receive up to 40 paid community service hours each year to pull on their boots and make a difference.
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the program, Timberland recently kicked off its 25 Days of Service Challenge, an internal campaign to drive incremental employee service engagement over 25 days. While the company plans and executes monthly service events to engage employees, the Challenge encourages employees to find and run their own events for themselves, a small group of colleagues, or their full team.
In response to the Challenge, Nick Dufour, Timberland’s senior manager of sales and operations, recently planned and led his first service day for 27 of his colleagues from the supply chain and operations teams. On June 28, the team served at Raitt Homestead Farm and Museum, a 33-acre property in Eliot, Maine run exclusively by volunteers to educate future generations about farming history. Timberland volunteers painted a barn and a museum building, installed a brick patio, cleared a trail, repaired and painted a screen house, planted a vegetable garden and organized tools.
“Timberland’s commitment to service is infused throughout every area of the business, and employees enjoy stepping up to do their part,” said Dufour. “Even though my position at Timberland isn’t directly related to service, I was given the opportunity to organize colleagues from across the business to benefit one unique organization. We all have day jobs, but it’s incredibly satisfying and rewarding to see what we can accomplish when we focus our energies on helping others.”
While other teams plan to serve during the 25 Days of Service Challenge, employees are also encouraged to participate individually, in ways that speak to their own passions. Individual projects could range from spending time with elderly people, cooking meals for homeless families, helping at a food pantry, or volunteering at an animal shelter. Since 1992, Timberland employees have served more than one million hours around the globe and are already on their way to the next million.
To learn more about Timberland’s support of the communities around the globe where employees live, work and explore, visit: https://www.timberland.com/responsibility/community.html
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Jul 12, 2017 1pm EDT / 10am PDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST