December 11, 2012 (Indianapolis, IN) – Fifty employees from Bastian Solutions recently spent a day at Francis Scott Key Elementary School in Indianapolis, Ind., to help the school promote its new STAR (Success, Teamwork, Attitude, Respect) status initiative for students.
Employees volunteered their time to help out in a variety of ways including painting and decorating the school’s media center and computer lab, putting together teaching packets for students, winterizing the school’s gardens, raking more than 40 bags of leaves, building a pergola on the playground, and most notably, building and painting a stage area for the media center.
"We have been very fortunate this year, so it’s nice to take a day to give back to the local community," said Gregg Durham, vice president at Bastian Solutions. "The teaching staff is working hard to provide a great learning environment here, so we are happy to do anything we can to encourage the kids to become STAR students."
The following Monday, Francis Scott Key’s current STAR students were the first to see the renovated media center and computer lab during the official unveiling. Members of the community were also invited, and the kids enjoyed a book reading and snacks to celebrate.
In addition to their time at the school, Bastian’s Indianapolis office is also raising money to purchase a book for each student to take home over their holiday break. Once the goal of $800 is raised, the money will be given to the school to select an appropriate book for each child.
Additional Volunteering Activities in 2012
In April, Bastian Robotics volunteered at the 2012 FIRST Championship in St. Louis where the team managed the Safety Glass Station to ensure all competitors were wearing their safety glasses inside the pit. Colin Shipley, a Robotics Developer, also mentored a local high school robotics team through their season and at the championship.
Bastian Robotics also volunteered to decorate the windows of Ranken Jordan, a pediatric speciality hospital in Missouri. The volunteers painted a giant Christmas tree and other pictures to get the hospital read for the holidays. (pictured right)
Also in August, Bastian South America visited a public hospital in Paulina, the office’s host city. The hospital needed help making games and decorations for their patients, many of them children. The team recycled materials they found in the hospital to make crafts and signs to decorate the hospital and encourage local residents to become blood donors.
In October, the Bastian Solutions office in St. Louis spent a day clearing leaves and doing yard work at two of the local Ronald McDonald Houses, an organization that provides housing for families with children in the hospital.
Bastian Automation Engineering spent several days helping the Hancock County, Indiana, Boys and Girls Club complete several renovations including cleaning duct work and painting the walls of the gym; creating two doorways through concrete block walls and installing a door; adding a 4-foot wall to secure the coat/backpack area; and creating a new classroom by framing, dry walling, and painting an area of a larger room. (pictured right)
Bastian Solutions in Cincinnati volunteered for a day at Matthew 25 Ministries (M25M), an international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization. The team helped M25M put together Bible school binders, one of the organization’s few sources of income as a not-for-profit.
Bastian Australia recently spent a day packing orders at a local food bank that supports charities across New South Wales. Also, Lincoln Yeo, Maintenance Supervisor for Bastian Australia, participated in the 2012 Sydney to the Gong MS Bike Ride in November to support the Multiple Sclerosis Society in Australia.
In November, Bastian Solutions in California volunteered at the Los Angeles Food Bank where they helped sort canned food that had been donated and then assembled food kits to be delivered to people in need.
Bastian Solutions in Grand Rapids, Michigan, visited a food pantry at a local church and spent the day unloading donated goods from a truck and handed out food to families that came to the pantry.
For its day of caring activity, the Bastian Software Solutions team in Louisville, Kentucky, volunteered at the Dare to Care Food Bank, where employees transferred and sorted cans collected during a food drive. The team worked in two main groups—one working to transfer and organize cans on a conveyor, while the other group sorted the cans into boxes according to categories designated by the Dare to Care staff. Finally, a few Bastian team members prepared the boxes for pallets, applied labels, and scanned the labels into the Dare to Care’s inventory tracking system. (pictured right)
On December 20th, Bastian Solutions’ Detroit office will work with Salvation Army families to sort through new and used gifts and clothes. The families choose the right clothing sizes and toys that interest their children and then surprise the kids with the gifts on Christmas day.
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About Bastian Solutions
Bastian Solutions, headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is one of the largest independent material handling system integrators in the world. Founded in 1952, Bastian has established itself as an innovator in the field of material handling automation, supply chain software, industrial controls, and robotics. The company includes 18 domestic offices as well as 7 international offices in Canada, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Mexico, and Qatar. For more information, visit www.bastiansolutions.com.