In The Community

Adopt A Highway

For over 10 years, Towne Air Freight has participated in the Adopt-A-Highway program keeping a 2 mile stretch of US Highway 20 clean and litter free. Employee volunteers gather together several times per year for a "Trash Bash" after work. It's a dirty job but the volunteers make the best of it!

Towne Air Freight Has A Heart

South Bend, IN - For the fourth consecutive year, Towne Air Freight rallied to raise funds for the American Heart Association (AHA) Heart Walk on Saturday, October 14th. The employees of the trucking company based out of South Bend have achieved great success by collectively contributing more than $125,000 over four years of participation in the event.

"Towne Air's involvement is crucial to our organization," noted AHA's Alison Martin. "They were in the top 100 donors in the first year and continue to maintain a high level of support."

The leadership of Towne encouraged participation by offering workers a "Dollar a Day" blue jean incentive. Employees who contributed were allowed to wear blue jeans for each dollar donated preceding the event. Money raised not only came from employee donations, but also through various activities held by the 17 corporate teams including homemade cookie, taffy apple and coney sauce sales, raffles for gift baskets and other prizes, a salad luncheon and a dunk tank.

The Heart Walk goes hand-in-hand with the company's existing wellness program designed to keep health issues top of mind. Beginning in August, as part of the wellness program and Heart Walk conditioning, staff at the South Bend location used Friday lunch hours for a series of Poker Walks. For laps completed around the building, each walker received playing cards. At the end of the hour, the walker with the best poker hand was rewarded with a gift card.

Towne's commitment to wellness and the Heart Walk has strong roots. "In 2003, we experienced a year where heart disease, heart attacks and strokes impacted our Towne Air Freight family very significantly. We chose at that time to get involved and make a difference," said Sharon Calahan, Towne's Director of Benefits & Compensation.

"We have a desire to be leaders within the community and to encourage other businesses without direct links to healthcare to get involved in causes such as the American Heart Association," continued Calahan. "Participation in events such as the Heart Walk presents a great opportunity to have a significant impact on our employees and their families through education and awareness."

Blood Drive

At Towne Air Freight we have been coordinating blood drives with the assistance of the South Bend Medical Foundation at regular intervals for the past year. Participation is spectacular with an average of 22 units collected each drive. We have had at least 5 people come in as first time donors with the supportive backing of their co-workers and supervisors. Employees and representatives from the SBMF Blood Bank are equally vocal about their appreciation towards Towne Air Freight for allowing them to donate blood during their work day. Without the the Blood Drives here at Towne many of us who wish to donate regularly would not be able to because of our family and work commitments. Thank you Towne Air for being a great place to work!

Business Of The Year

In January 2005, Towne Air Freight was named Business of the Year by the Michiana Chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The award is given to companies that demonstrate a commitment to advancing the human resources profession while making outstanding contributions to its employees and the community at large.

Homeless Shelter Pizza

Every month since 2001, Towne Air Freight has supplied homemade pizzas to the Center for the Homeless. Employee volunteers alternate months making pizzas at home for delivery to the homeless shelter. On "pizza day" more employee volunteers go to the shelter to serve the residents and to spend time interacting with them.

Hurricane Relief

On Wednesday, Sept. 14, a Towne Air Freight 53' trailer full of medical supplies, food and clothing headed to a church in Long Beach, Mississippi. Roger Ecker, Director of Safety Training, volunteered to drive the trailer down.
Towne rented a sleeper tractor for Roger to drive, as no hotel rooms would be available once Roger arrived in Mississippi. Towne is also covering gas mileage and other expenses.
DeAnne Kwieran, wife of Keith Kwieren, SBN, works at Ironwood Circle Medical Center, which organized the donations. DeAnne realized that Towne could help haul the donations and after some quick planning everything came together on Sept. 13, when the trailer was loaded at the clinic.
Arnold del Pilar, Jr., D.O., of Ironwood Circle Medical Center, is president of the Indiana Osteopathic Association and has also convinced 38 physicians to travel down to help hurricane victims over the next several weeks.
Dr. Arnold del Pilar Jr., D.O., (right) of Ironwood Circle Medical Center in South Bend organized the donations, which came from his office, St. Joseph High School in South Bend, and Alick's Home Medical in South Bend. A local farmer even donated cases of apples, which Roger Ecker is helping to load (right).
As of 4 p.m. on Sept. 14, Roger reported he was in Alabama and planned to stop in Mobile, which is the last city that has reliable electricity. He'll head to his destination on Thursday morning. Roger says that the Sept. 12 issue of Time magazine has photos of the destruction in Long Beach, Mississippi.

Read To A Child

In February 2004, Towne Air Freight launched a Read To A Child project in partnership with Coquillard Primary Center in the South Bend Community School Corporation. Coquillard has 500 children in grades K-4 and ranked last in South Bend's ISTEP scores after the reorganization of Plan Z in 2004. That year, Coquillard's staff identified 88 children as "At Risk" for failure in school due to reading problems. Each child was paired with 1 of 88 Towne Air Freight employees who then met for a half hour a week to read with the child through the end of the school year. At the end of the four-month period, 93% of the children in the reading program were reading at their proper grade level. Seventy-two percent of those children had advanced their reading level 4 or more levels. Based on these remarkable results, the South Bend Community School Corporation launched a community-wide initiative, South Bend Reads, to attract more organizations into this kind of partnership. As of this school year, 20 new organizations have signed up to work with 9 elementary schools with a total additional volunteer reader count of 124. While having a profound impact on these children and the community at large, this project also had an equally profound impact on the employees participating.

Worksite Wellness

South Bend, IN--Towne Air Freight, a trucking company with more than 1,000 employees nationwide, has been awarded 4-Star certification by the Wellness Council of Indiana. Rob Jensen, VP of Certification for the council, presented the award to members of Towne's Wellness Team on Wednesday, March 14th prior to a meeting of the Reducing Obesity Coalition of St. Joseph County.

Dollars saved by preventing disease can be used to support employee development, wages and other benefits improving employee engagement, retention and recruiting. Towne's leadership is pleased with the team's progress and recognition by the council.

"Our long-term strategy is to leverage the relative health of our team as a competitive advantage while enjoying the obvious benefits of healthier and happier employees and families," said Jerry Scott, Towne's Vice President of Human Resources.

"Almost everyone has a health plan, but how many have a plan for health?" asked Mike Campbell, president of the Wellness Council during the short ceremony. "Towne recognizes the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles and other companies throughout the community look to Towne as a leader in this area."

Mayor Stephen J. Leucke was in attendance and commended Towne for contributing to the community not only as an employer, but as a leader. "Towne sets a great example for the community with their commitment to well-being in mind, body and spirit," said Leucke, referring to Towne's Read-to-a-Child program, award-winning wellness initiative and the company's most recent outreach project to build spirit of community and a Habitat for Humanity house this spring.

Towne Holdings is a privately held company headquartered in South Bend, IN, that provides a wide range of freight services. Towne Air Freight offers air freight trucking service to 46 airports across United States, as well as less-than-truckload transportation services in several states. Towne Network Solutions manages air freight trucking for airlines and air freight forwarders. Rocket Expedited Services provides on-demand shipping services to all points in the continental United States as well as service to Canada.

Youth Service Bureau Grand Prix

In July 2004 and 2005, Towne Air Freight participated in the Youth Service Bureau Grand Prix to raise money for the "Racing for Kids in Crisis" program. Towne's mechanics work together for weeks leading up to the event to prepare a kart for the Grand Prix. Several events occur leading up to the Grand Prix including Karts at the Cove where Towne Air Freight won "Best of Show" in both 2004 and 2005. Participation fees and vendor fees along with refreshment and souvenir purchases all go toward funding this program to provide assistance to the youth within our community in need.