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Last Tuesday morning, a crowd of 800 or so Ford Motor Company employees assembled inside the recently restored Michigan Central Station building in downtown Detroit. They wore bright blue T-shirts emblazoned with the Ford emblem and gathered in small groups taking selfies and chatting with old friends before joining long lines to sign up for the day’s activities.
They were there to help celebrate the launch of Ford Building Together, a new partnership the automaker has struck up with the American Red Cross, Feeding America, Habitat for Humanity, and Team Rubicon. Ford will provide financial, material, and technical support to each of the non-profits to help them respond to disasters and to bolster their ongoing relief and community building efforts. It also plans to offer something new to these groups: a nation-wide network of trained volunteers who work at the company’s corporate, manufacturing, and dealership locations across the United States.
A voice came over the PA system and asked everyone to head outside. A wave of blue T-shirts—battery research scientists, assembly line workers, IT specialists, graphic designers, and salespeople—filed outdoors where a stage had been set up in a public park. The actor Bryan Cranston welcomed the crowd with a few jokes and then said, “For 122 years this company has been there for America and the world and not just by building cars. It has built community and all of you volunteers are living proof. You show up. And not just this morning but all year long. You’re out there in the cold, in the darkest hour.”
Ford established its Volunteer Corps after a major earthquake struck northwestern Turkey in 1999. Bill Ford Jr., Henry Ford’s grandson and the company’s executive chairman, led an effort with workers at Ford’s Turkish manufacturing plants to provide rescue teams with equipment, funds, and manpower. Impressed by how many employees from around the world volunteered to help then—and again after other disasters—Ford Jr. created an employee volunteer program in 2005 that offered employees paid time off each year to volunteer for any non-profit they want. “Since then, we have completed almost 2 million volunteer hours,” said a beaming Ford Jr., who had joined Cranston on the stage. “But we know times are changing and we’re seeing the needs of communities continue to change and evolve and meeting these needs requires a deeper commitment.”
Cranston welcomed several other Ford executives onto the stage, including Mary Culler, the president of Ford Philanthropy, who in turn introduced representatives from the four non-profits. Next came a performance by the Detroit Youth Choir and then Cranston said, “Now, let’s get to work.”
Each non-profit organization had set up a station and volunteers spread out across the park to pack boxes with Feeding America, learn CPR at American Red Cross, master storm debris removal techniques from Team Rubicon, and to build walls for new houses with Habitat for Humanity. At the Feeding for America station, a Ford logistics specialist described how he’d helped the group streamline their distribution process by adding QR codes to their boxes. At the Habitat station, where volunteers were discovering how tricky it is to hammer a 16 penny nail through 2-by-4 wood studs, a Ford factory tooling expert wondered aloud if the company could help create stronger nails for the projects.
“One of the goals of our Building Together program is to help bring some of Ford’s know-how to bear,” Mary Culler explained. “We have experts in fleet management, marketing, distribution, and so much more. We’re hoping we can help each of these organizations expand their programs.”
Back inside Michigan Central, Bryan Cranston was shaking hands with volunteers and meeting with local journalists. “I started working with Ford around eight years ago and at first it was just another job,” he said. “A great job. But then Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and I wanted to find a way to help.” Cranston called Mary Culler and asked her if the company would give him a discount on some Ford pickup trucks he wanted to donate to an aid group called Heart 9/11. “The company gave me the trucks at cost and I ended traveling to the island with Ford to volunteer on a rebuilding projects.” Since then, Cranston has purchased trucks for Team Rubicon and other groups and joined Ford employees for other volunteer initiatives.
“It’s wonderful because you’re out there meeting new people and making friends,” he said. “And it’s also empowering. When you’re donating your time, you realize, ‘Oh, ‘I’m bringing value to this project and also to myself.’”
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