Giving Tuesday at Martin Horn
Martin Horn is committed to our community and the local nonprofits that help support it.
This #GivingTuesday, we asked members of the ownership team to tell us which organizations they give to, not just on Giving Tuesday, but all year long.
TED HORN – MARTIN HORN HELPS
Organization: Martin Horn Helps
Description/Mission Statement:
Background
This idea of family is important to our company. We still see our employees as more than individuals, but as an extension of a family. Family takes care of family.
Vision
There are unforeseen catastrophic events that affect the men and women that work for Martin Horn. Often these events can become too much for an individual family to handle. Martin Horn Helps provides support to employees of Martin Horn. Through the support of donors, fellow employees, and the community, Martin Horn Helps provides grants, services or outreach to help ease our employees’ burden.
How (and when) did you get involved with the organization?
Martin Horn Helps is a new organization we started this year. We had heard of other companies starting similar programs and were inspired to do that for our own team.
What about the organization or their mission compelled you to become involved?
Martin Horn Helps is all about providing a safety net for the people who work for Martin Horn. I love that we have an organization where employees help other employees. This was a way we could do that in a powerful and safe way.
Tell me about a rewarding experience you had when working with this organization.
The most rewarding part is seeing the employees of Martin Horn embrace this idea. It says a tremendous amount about the people who work here.
JOSH HORTON – WESTIMINSTER CHILD CARE CENTER
Organization: Westminster Child Care Center
Description/Mission Statement:
Westminster Child Care’s mission is to provide a diverse population of families with affordable high quality childcare and early childhood education. We promote socioeconomic, racial, and cultural diversity by serving families of various backgrounds. To achieve our mission, we recruit and retain a diverse and caring staff that are highly qualified and fairly compensated; we maintain a multi-tier sliding scale tuition based on family income; and we administer a scholarship program that is funded through donations.
How (and when) did you get involved with the organization?
I become involved with Westminster Child Care Center when my oldest daughter started daycare there, three and a half years ago. Now, both my girls attend WCCC and my wife is on the board of directors. I have become more involved as Martin Horn “adopted” the Fireflies classroom for the 2019-2020 school year and as we make plans to build some important items for the center’s new food garden.
What about the organization or their mission compelled you to become involved?
Westminster Child Care Center provides both a loving environment for the kids who attend as well as quality early childhood education. These are things that all parents want to find when looking for daycare but for many families, this type of center would be too costly to consider. Most of the teachers have been teaching and loving the kids at WCCC for many years and make the center what it is. With the WCCC’s mission and tiered tuition, the center relies heavily on donations of items, time, and money.
Tell me about a rewarding experience you had when working with this organization.
Westminster Child Care Center aims to create fun learning experiences inside and outside the classroom for all of the kids. A recent project has created an outdoor food garden in the playground area, allowing kids to learn more about healthy food, where food comes from, and how it grows. The kids have been excited to help fill barrels with soil to get the space ready for berry bushes and future spring planting. Some of the kids were brainstorming on what they would like to grow and suggested carrots, loaves of bread, popcorn, and strawberries. They giggled and said that bread and popcorn couldn’t grow from their plants but soon learned that popping corn could be grown and a small plot is now being incorporated into the garden plans. Martin Horn has offered to help bring some of the garden plans to fruition, including building items like a trellis for kiwi plants to grow on and kid-sized garden storage bins so that kids can access their tools and toys to play and work in the garden space. It has been rewarding to see my oldest daughter work with the group to get the garden space ready and to see her excitement in making plans for what to plant and grow. From preparing the garden space, selecting seeds to be grown, picking the fruits and veggies, and turning them into delicious and healthy smoothies and pizza, the garden will be an exciting space this year
ROBERT MENASCO – THE CENTRAL VIRGINIA APPRENTICESHIP COUNCIL (CVAC)
Organization: The Central Virginia Apprenticeship Council (CVAC)
Description/Mission Statement:
The Central Virginia Apprenticeship Council (CVAC) strives to assist employers in establishing and maintaining a robust registered apprenticeship program (RAP) in order to provide a regenerative pipeline of qualified workers. This will be accomplished, in part, by:
Acting as the voice of the local construction and service contractors to influence local governmental and private agencies to deliver best in class related technical instruction;
Promoting the benefits of a career in the construction trades, that begins with a foundation built through the apprenticeship program in the local community; and to
Provide guidance and assistance to the contracting and private employer community in developing their own registered apprenticeship programs.
How (and when) did you get involved with the organization?
I’ve recently become involved with this organization, which helps place workers in jobs and help companies create apprenticeship programs. I became involved after hearing about it from our Workforce & Safety Director, Pam Haney.
What about the organization or their mission compelled you to become involved?
Even in my own experience, starting in grade school, there was a lot of pressure to go to college, but there are other career opportunities that lead to success and happiness. There is a huge shortage of tradesmen and tradeswomen in our country—that’s what first piqued my interest and why I chose to get involved. I really believe in the future of the trades. The trades provide steady, dependable work with great pay and benefits to lots of men and women.
Tell me about a rewarding experience you had when working with this organization.
I know a carpenter who started out as laborer who worked his way up, through a similar apprenticeship program. It changed his whole life. He just bought a house—something he likely would never been able to do without this program. It’s rewarding to talk to folks like him who have been able to find a gratifying and successful career in the trades.
ARTHUR ROGERS – VIRGINIA DISCOVERY MUSEUM
Organization: Virginia Discovery Museum
Description/Mission Statement:
The Virginia Discovery Museum fosters intellectual curiosity and development for all children of our community.
[Vision Statement] The Virginia Discovery Museum envisions a future in which all children in our community are inspired to be lifelong learners. We seek to be a vital community resource where children from economically and culturally diverse backgrounds explore, imagine and discover together.
How (and when) did you get involved with the organization?
In 2015, Martin Horn was approached by the directors of the museum about a potential project to remodel their front gallery. They did not have an extensive budget and needed help with design, permitting, and construction services. I jumped right in to start helping them get their design ideas down on paper. I learned a lot about this nonprofit as we worked together, shoulder to shoulder, and really started to believe in their mission and vision. We worked together on the project buy-out process, to find ways to minimize direct cost and to maximize charitable donations from the community (for which there were many). I called on local trade contractors to chip in and help, and many gladly did so. During the build out of the space, Calvin (Wilkerson) and I volunteered our time, and found that others around us were equally excited to help. I joined the board soon after the project was over and have been their ever since. We later helped to remodel the back gallery at the Museum with a much-needed facelift. Martin Horn has donated design, preconstruction services, labor and funding to the Virginia Discovery Museum.
What about the organization or their mission compelled you to become involved?
The Virginia Discovery Museum is dedicated to providing exciting, imaginative, and educational experiences to children and families. VDM collaborates closely with local schools, social service agencies, cultural institutions and governing groups to meet the needs of the children of our community. Through the Free Admission Program and Camp Scholarship Fund, they make the museum and our programs accessible to all. As a new father, I really could appreciate the need for a place like this in the community. There are many underserved and struggling families in our community who just need a place to take their children, even if just a short time.
Tell me about a rewarding experience you had when working with this organization.
The day they opened the back gallery after the renovation, I brought my children to come play in the new environment. They had such a great time running throughout the different spaces and interacting with all the different children. Laughing, playing, sharing, and smiling… it was easy to see what made this a special place. In my opinion, putting joy in the hearts of children is one of the most rewarding trades you can pursue.