Americas
‘UNITED WAY’
The ICL Americas largest ongoing community engagement project is its support (both financial and through employee volunteering) of the ‘United Way’ program of the Greater St. Louis Region. This non-profit agency provides support to over 180 social service agencies in the region. The United Way of Greater St. Louis helps 1 in 3 local people in the areas of food and shelter, improving health, fostering learning, strengthening communities, and establishing financial stability. The 2018 campaign offered ICL Employees (from Carondelet, Webster Groves and the St. Louis Headquarters) the opportunity to volunteer in 3 different service projects at local United Way agencies. In total, over 30 company employees contributed over 80 hours of service. ICL Americas operated a house collection drive for local agencies collecting over 2,000 items. Finally, the campaign raised over $60,000 in employee and corporate donations.
ICL PARTNERS WITH FOREST RELEAF OF MISSOURI TO KEEP ST. LOUIS GREENER
ICL employees from the Carondelet Plant, Webster Groves Technical Center and the St. Louis HQ sites teamed up to make Carondelet Park a little greener. This annual Earth Day event is focused on keeping our community greener and support urban reforestation efforts in the St. Louis region.
Community Foresters from Forest Relief of Missouri give employees a crash course in proper tree planting. Employees get to work digging, planting, mulching and watering dozens of trees that will provide shade, beauty, and enjoyment for all those that enjoy this park nearest to our plant.
ICL LAWRENCE TEAMS UP WITH JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
ICL Lawrence has been involved in Junior Achievement (JA) in Lawrence, Kansas for nearly 13 years. ICL employees have volunteered to teach at the Woodlawn School in North Lawrence. ICL averages 10 employees each year who volunteer to mentor students for five hours a week. In addition, ICL employees help raise funds for the program through other fundraisers, including Bowl-A-Thon and a Chili Cookoff. In 2018, employees of the ICL-Lawrence plant raised over $1,400 USD for Junior Achievement.
ICL U.S. LAWRENCE’s SUPPORT FOR THE ANNUAL KAW VALLEY EAGLES DAY
Each year, the ICL Lawrence Plant in Kansas sponsors a local event called the “Kaw Valley Eagles Day.” It is sponsored by the Jayhawk chapter of the Audubon Society. This annual educational event is full of animal presentations about snakes, red tailed hawks, bald eagles, and more. There are also other interactive activities for the kids, including dissecting a real owl pellet. During this event, the community has various opportunities to visit different sites near the Clinton Lake or near the downtown area for Eagle Watching.
ICL partnered with The Home Depot to provide 400 small wooden kits of bird houses, toolboxes, and race cards for children to build. This is a very popular activity with the kids. ICL volunteers assisted children in the building assembly of the kits.
ICL LAWRENCE PLANT SUPPORTS THE UNITED WAY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY THROUGH ANNUAL CAMPAIGN
The ICL Lawrence Plant supports the United Way of Douglas County with its annual fundraising campaign. ICL Lawrence has been supporting the Douglas County United Way for over 20 Years because the plant is in the heart of Douglas County and is invested in supporting organizations that aid the residents in our community.
The Douglas County United Way directs donations to local not-for-profit organizations focused on improving the areas Education, Health and Financial Stability. Lawrence employees supported the United Way with over $16,000 in donations. These donations fund programs to aid in school readiness, make food accessible for all and providing healthcare coverage for preventative care.
ICL U.S GALLIPOLIS FERRY RECOGNIZED AS PARTNERS IN EDUCATION
ICL-IP Gallipolis Ferry is an active and involved Partner in Education with the Beale Elementary School located within close-proximity of the GF site. Beale enrolls about 255 students in Pre-Kindergarten through Sixth Grade.
ICL has supported Beale students, staff, and community in a wide variety of ways over the years. These include helping with landscaping, providing reflective tape for student backpacks and clothing as they wait for buses, purchasing supplies for shelter-in-place events, and donating items for fundraisers. ICL employees have also donated food for Beale’s backpack program which provides food for children who may not have food otherwise on weekends.
Often, ICL employees volunteer as judges for school contests and school activities such as Career Days, Open Houses, and Family Fun Days at the school.
ICL promotes safety awareness with Beale Elementary by sponsoring a safety poster contest each year most recently in conjunction with ICL’s National Safety Week. Students submit safety posters on a safety topic of their choice and GF displays posters in the hallway of the administration building during Safety Week. ICL then purchases books from the school’s book fair for the winners, who are also chosen by ICL employees.
ICL GF values its strong relationship with the local elementary school. Giving back to the community is very important to ICL GF and investing in the local children is one of its most important and treasured outreach efforts.
TARRYTOWN LIGHTS IT UP BLUE IN SUPPORT OF AUTISM
The ICL IP Team in Tarrytown, NY, teamed up in support of World Autism Day. During World Autism Day, the international community, hundreds of thousands of landmarks, buildings, homes and communities around the world, light it up blue in recognition of people living with autism. Autism-friendly events and educational activities take place all month to increase understanding and acceptance and foster worldwide support. The team raised money and participated in the Autism Speaks Walk in New York.
On June 3, 2018, members from the ICL-Tarrytown Office with family & friends participated in a local Autism Speaks walk in White Plains, New York. The office raised over $1,400 with collections from ICL co-workers, family, friends, a cookie sale and a donation from ICL.
HUNGER DOESN’T TAKE A VACATION – ICL EMPLOYEES PACK FOOD FOR ST. LOUIS AREA FOOD BANK
Employees from the St. Louis HQ and Webster Groves Technical Center teamed up with the St. Louis Area Foodbank packing potatoes for local food pantries. In a few short hours, this team of employees, with another company team, processed an astounding 17,290 pounds of potatoes for local food pantries – which equates to 14,114 meals for the hungry. ICL has an ongoing partnership with the St. Louis Area Foodbank sponsoring other volunteer opportunities and food drives.
ICL-IP TARRYTOWN SUPPORTS WIZ GIRLS STEM EVENT
Technology and engineering changes make a difference in the world in more ways than you can even imagine and there will be an increasing need for talent in these fields of study. Currently, only about 1 in 5 girls choose to study technology and engineering in school. To encourage more young girls (grades 4-7) to explore these areas and be adventurous, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) holds an annual “WizGirl-Building the Future!” event at the Ardsley Middle School in early November. The event ran an all-day program for 225 girls, of whom about 50% were from schools/communities that are lower income. Over 100 volunteers and companies ran 14 hands-on workshops and an afternoon team, “Design and Build” activity. The event was a great success.
ICL-IP Tarrytown participated in this amazing event. The site’s Research Chemist, Dr. Meng Zhang, conducted one of the workshops, “Rubber Band Cars.” This workshop is inspired by a recent technology that harvests light breezes to generate electricity. In this technology, these young scientists use a device that converts wind power to elastic energy. In the workshop, the girls learned to make their own rubber band car and feel the elastic energy using their hands and eyes. The girls also got a chance to decorate their cars and have a “car race” in the hallway.
ICL JUDGES STUDENTS IN THE YOU BE THE CHEMIST CHALLENGE ® AT LOCAL UNIVERSITY
The You Be the Chemist Challenge® (YBTC) is an interactive academic contest that encourages students in grades 5th to 8th to explore chemistry concepts and their real-world applications. The Chemical Educational Foundation® (CEF) sponsors this program.
In 1989, the CEF was founded by the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD). CEF’s supporters, mainly companies and individuals in industries that rely on the science of chemistry, including several NACD members including: ICL, BASF, Colgate-Palmolive, Shell, Dow, Nexeo, Univar and Brenntag.
The Challenge provides a unique opportunity for a variety of individuals and organizations—including schools, members of the chemical industry, educators, and other community partners—to come together and show their support for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. Dr. Tony Gichuhi, Global Technology Leader, ICL AA, was one of the volunteer judges at this year’s 2018 Missouri State You Be the Chemist Challenge® held at the Lindenwood University Campus on April 14.
ICL AMERICAS SPECIALTY FERTILIZER TEAM PARTICIPATED IN TRIDENT UNITED WAY’S DAYS OF CARING
ICL Specialty Fertilizer team in North Charleston, South Carolina partnered with Fort Dorchester Elementary School to design and build raised garden beds in a fenced area on the school grounds. This service project was part of the United Way Days of Caring where different employers can volunteer in the community. The team donated all materials for one bed for each grade level at the school These garden beds will allow hands-on time outside and enrichment of teachings on the topics of science and health.
The team of ICL volunteers transported and installed 1200 lbs. of lumber and 8250 lbs. of soil/potting media. In addition, to the 6 requested raised garden beds, they built a 7th raised bed into which they planted three blueberry bushes. ICL also donated a drip irrigation system which was installed for the raised beds. Many herbs and vegetables were planted, and additional seeds/bulbs were donated with instructions for the kids to plant both this fall and the coming spring.
