On Friday, April 21st, 2017, S&L employees gathered at a nearby park to help spread fresh mulch on the playground.
Smith & Loveless employees volunteered their time and muscles to lend a hand to the City of Lenexa's Parks & Rec department. As part of an effort in the last year to develop service opportunities with the City and in the Shawnee Mission area, Smith & Loveless accepted an invitation from Jennifer Doty, Lenexa Recreation Supervisor. The job? Send a team of 10 volunteers to help apply fresh mulch to the City's Scouting Park playground areas. Executive Assistant Hannah Andrae, who participates on S&L's Outreach Committee, coordinated the effort and arranged to have special T-Shirts designed for employees by Graphic Designer Jonathan Ubben. The "S&L Lends a Hand T-Shirts" were provided to the team in advance so that they could wear them last Friday. The overcast and cool afternoon actually provided the perfect conditions for spreading....a lot of mulch!
Representatives from different S&L departments comprised the workforce, including from Engineering, Accounting, Marketing Communications, Municipal Sales, Customer Service, After Market, and Executive. Donna Guerrero, from Accounting, was one of the participants.
"Ryan Lansdon, Municipal Division Application Engineer and I took turns on the wheelbarrow," Guerrero said. "He would take one load then I. We were mulching buddies."
"But later he was taking two for my one," Guerrero said with a laugh.
She said she enjoyed helping put Smith & Loveless in Lenexa while enjoying the comradery of people from around different parts of the company.
"I enjoy volunteering," Guerrero said. "It was fun to work with different people with whom you don't always interact."
Smith & Loveless will be offering more opportunities like this and other projects to serve together in the future, Andrae said.
"Everyone's enthusiasm was awesome," Andrae said. "At first there was some apprehension (given the amount of work in the time allotted), but everyone dug in. Afterward, everyone felt really good about it."
For more pics of S&L employees lending a hand, visit S&L's Facebook page!