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.

Education Award

South Bend, Indiana-November 13, 2008

Towne Air Freight was presented with a Corporate Education Award November 13, 2008 during a banquet to honor inductees of South Bend's Hall of Fame. Each year, The South Bend Alumni Association selects community leaders who have made significant contributions to the community of South Bend through their service or achievements.

Along with the six individuals bestowed this honor for 2008, Towne Air Freight was chosen as the Association's pick for Corporate Award recipient. Reason cited on the plaque includes "outstanding commitment to their work in our community when performing services and providing resources to enhance the health and welfare of children and families."

Jerry Scott, vice president of human resources, was in attendance to accept the award on behalf of the company and the many employees providing leadership in community activism. Over the years, Towne has supported organizations including the Youth Services Bureau, Read to a Child, Homeless Center and Habitat for Humanity.

Habitat For Humanity

In the spring/summer of 2007, Towne Air Freight partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build a house in South Bend. From drivers and dock workers to office employees, sales staff and senior leaders, the entire organization rolled up their sleeves to build a home with selected recipient Catrice Nelson.

Nelson applied to the Habitat for Humanity program that funds zero-interest mortgages in January 2006, and has since been receiving extensive training on home construction and maintenance through Sweat Equity hours. She has also gained financial education and debt remediation counseling in hopes of swinging a hammer on a home of her own. This spring, Towne is helping make her dream come true.

"I feel blessed and thankful to have the opportunity to get a house this year," said Nelson. "I want to thank Towne Air Freight and all of the people who are willing to help me and my family by working on the job site."

Two days of pre-construction at the Habitat ReStore on April 21st and 28th served as the kick-off to Towne's Blitz Build beginning May 1st. Employees of Towne Air Freight, Rocket Expedited and Towne Network Solutions spent 14 days working alongside Nelson at the 1232 W. Jefferson site to assemble 2x4s, drywall, paint and shingles into a home for her and her two boys - Javeion (5) and Deion (13).

Towne's involvement with Habitat began during hurricane relief efforts when a truck and driver were donated to haul a pre-constructed home to Texas two years ago. Last July, Towne's president, Tom Downey sent a memo to employees questioning the expenditure of holding a company Christmas party in December given the obvious need throughout our local communities.

"Through Towne's many community outreach programs like our Read to a Child program and our participation in the American Heart Association's Heart Walk, we have become increasingly aware that serving the community together gives us just as powerful, if not a more powerful, experience of togetherness as fellow employees than a fancy party," Downey noted.

"At Towne we truly believe in leading by example and to have our team be so giving of their time and talents to improve the lives of others shows a great deal of community spirit at every level of the organization," said Jerry Scott, vice-president of Human Resources. "We hope other businesses notice our efforts and choose to get involved."

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.

Our Towne Truck Pull

Towne Air Freight proudly sponsored and co-hosted the first annual Our Towne Truck Pull in October 2009 to raise money for The Public Education Foundation in South Bend, IN. The Public Education Foundation promotes and funds initiatives like Teacher Grants, Thank-A-Teacher and Reading Programs to enrich learning experiences for the students and staff of the South Bend Community School Corporation. Jim Kapsa's Our Town Truck Pull specifically benefits reading programs for struggling elementary students needing individualized reading instruction.

This first year event brought members together from businesses and schools throughout the community to raise more than $35,000 to support tutors for students needing the most help learning to read. Teams of 20 competed in 5 divisions: Men's, Women's, Co-ed, Seniors (60+) and Students to pull a tractor-trailer twelve feet, against the clock for plaques and bragging rights. Think tug-of-war with a semi-tractor and 53-foot trailer on the other end of the rope!

And, although the event was to support a great cause, Towne is proud of our teams who gave their all to take several prizes for the day!

• 1st place Co-Ed division--Hoeh's Heroes from Operations
• 3rd place Co-Ed division--Towne High Rollers from Finance, Sales, NPC & IT
• Team Spirit Award--Team 10-4 Rubber Ducky from HR, Safety & IC Admin
• Top Team Fundraisers--Again, Hoeh's Heroes

Hoeh's Heroes slogan "Pull Together--Win Together" rang true for the entire staff long before the day of the event. Employees from all across our network pitched in with fundraising ideas and support for bake sales, raffles, dollar jean days and even a roller skating party! The staff of Towne Air Freight knows the meaning of team and are proud to serve the communities where we live and work!

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.