Rockwall company challenges the corporate community

ROCKWALL,TX. (June 25, 2015) The top executive of a Rockwall-based manufacturing company is issuing a challenge to local businesses that he says will not only benefit local charitable organizations, but also build a closer corporate community.

Jeff Kilpatrick, President and CEO of Whitmore, suggests that if more local companies and their employees engage in fun, corporate challenge-type events, the benefits would go beyond raising money for a common cause; it would connect and unite the Rockwall business community as a whole.

Kilpatrick has already reached out to several contacts to encourage participation in corporate challenge events, and has received positive response. He is hopeful that others will want to join in for some friendly competition.

Sheri Franza, President and CEO of the Rockwall Economic Development Corporation, said that Whitmore is an example of “caring corporate leadership.”

“The REDC recruits large corporations to the city to broaden and diversify the tax base, and we want our corporations to be active and involved in our great community. Whitmore is a perfect example of the type of business REDC recruits. They expand with a corporate philosophy of caring about the Rockwall community,” she said, pointing out that Whitmore recently added 127,000 sq. ft. to its facility at930 Whitmore Drive. “Their caring corporate leadership adds to the quality of our community, and is one of the many things that keep Rockwall special.”

The corporate challenges that Kilpatrick proposes are similar to the charitable activities happening now at Whitmore – “but on a much larger scale.”

“We like the competition,” Kilpatrick said of Whitmore events. “It energizes people and gets them involved in community. But what would be really fun is if we could find other local companies to compete against and increase the

charitable giving to the many deserving nonprofits in Rockwall.”

Whitmore’s charitable giving activities are built around a program called “Whitmore Cares,” which was created in 1997 to help employees who were struggling financially. When Kilpatrick arrived in Rockwall in 2013, he received many calls from charity representatives requesting Whitmore’s financial support. An employee committee was formed to determine how Whitmore could better serve the community and help its employees, too.

Helping Whitmore’s employees – 150 overall and 120 at its Rockwall location – was a major part of the process, and it’s how Whitmore’s corporate challenge began.

“We’ve added a lot more employees as our business has grown,” Kilpatrick said. “The family atmosphere often found in small companies becomes a struggle as you add more people. We wanted to find ways for our employees to connect and feel part of the team, the family.”

In the process, Kilpatrick said, all employees were asked what causes they were passionate about – “not what charities, but what causes?” They responded with about 15. Then, they were asked to list their top three.

The highest ranked causes were financially distressed families, children with disabilities and the elderly. The next step involved “aligning” activities with the causes. “We decided to align our giving, our volunteering and our community-related activities in those three areas,” Kilpatrick said. “Then, we went into the Rockwall community and said, ‘What charities are out there that are aligned with those causes? Let’s pick those charities, let’s work as a partner with them and help them do what they’re trying to do.'”

To address the “financially distressed families” cause, the committee chose Rockwall County Helping Hands. LifePath Foundation/ECI inRockwallCounty, which provides services to individuals of all ages with developmental disabilities, was the charity selected for the “children with disabilities” cause.  Two recipients –Senior Care Centers and Meals on Wheels Senior Services of Rockwall County – were selected to address “the elderly” cause.

Kilpatrick said Whitmore officials contacted representatives of the charitable organizations to find out how they could help, not only with financial support, but also with volunteer opportunities. He recalled a fresh food drive for Helping Hands, which involved a competition between the male and female employees of Whitmore. The winning side got to throw pies in the faces of three people of their choice.

“Yes, I got a pie in my face,” Kilpatrick said. “It was great fun. Everybody got involved and we had a good time.”

Whitmore employees also teamed up for a diaper drive benefiting LifePath. This time the competition was between Whitmore departments.

Challenges such as these have been effective in getting employees involved. But Kilpatrick added that the focus on a specific cause has also been a key to success.

“People are going to be more motivated to participate if it’s something they care about,” he said. “If it’s not personal to them, they may not be motivated to do it.

So, the challenge is on. “Some businesses might be interested in doing something, but they might not know how to go about it. If we can be a resource and share with others the process that we’ve come up with, that would be great,” Kilpatrick said.

Those interested in getting involved in a corporate challenge may contact Kilpatrick at jkilpatrick@whitmores.com, or reach out to the REDC at sbell@rockwalledc.com.

Story submitted by the Rockwall EDC, with Dawn Redig, Blue Ribbon News contributing.

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  Corporate Challenge, diaper drive, EDC, Rockwall