Con-way Truckload announced that its employees raised $61,780 in the Joplin, Mo.-based company’s annual Truckloads of Treasures campaign to support deserving area children and senior citizens during the holidays. Employees purchased gifts including toys, blankets, clothing and food for 200 children and 100 senior citizens in the Joplin area, with the remaining funds to be distributed to eight local nonprofit organizations.
Nearly 200 employees, along with their friends and family, met at Joplin’s Target store Dec. 4 for a Truckloads of Treasures shopping event to buy gifts for this year’s recipients. Of the remaining funds, $7,000 will be donated to The Salvation Army for food baskets. Each of the following charitable agencies will receive a donation of $4,540: Agency on Aging, Camp Quality, Joplin Family Y, Boys and Girls Club, Ronald McDonald House, Children’s Miracle Network and The Bridge.
“We thank Con-way Truckload employees for their great generosity and hard work with this program,” says Capt. Mary Poff, pastor for the Joplin Salvation Army. “The food baskets they are providing our local community will help feed the hungry and provide healthy holiday meals at a time when people are finding it harder and harder to feed their families.”
Truckloads of Treasures funds are raised through an employee raffle of prizes donated by executive management. This year’s items included a day off with pay plus $250 in cash; $400 cash; one week off with pay; two weeks off with pay; and $200 gift cards to local and national businesses. Truckloads of Treasures team members sell tickets at different dollar amounts depending on the raffle prize. For every $20 in tickets purchased, employees received one ticket for a drawing to win a $400 gas gift card.
“Con-way Truckload people dug deep and actually beat last year’s fund-raising record by 50 percent despite the challenging economy,” says Herb Schmidt, president of Con-way Truckload. “Employees at every level of the company pitched in to support our Truckloads of Treasures tradition, and we appreciate the opportunities it provides us to help those who need it most during the holiday season.”
Con-way Truckload created Truckloads of Treasures in the mid-90s. Since then, the company has presented more than $250,000 in employee-raised donations to the local organizations through the program.
