35 Acts of Kindness for our 35 Year Anniversary
ICC turned 35 this year, and we needed a way to celebrate.
The incredible staff at ICC came up with the perfect solution; one that got everyone involved in making our 35th year our best ever, at every possible level. We dubbed 2018 as the “Year of Kindness!” and throughout the year we performed 35 Acts of Kindness that stretched community and company-wide. As part of our company culture, we believe it’s important to give back to the community where we live, play and work. 2018 found us delivering surprises, buying lunches and collecting donations. We invited everyone to join us as we passed it forward, because there can never be too much kindness in this world.
- Laura Lyke, President & CEO
1/35 - Vienna Coffee
Our first Act of Kindness was a success! We secretly bought several people coffee and snacks at The Vienna Coffeehouse. We had so much fun watching people's reactions as they were told that a local company had taken care of their tab. The best part was when it created a chain reaction and several people started buying someone else's order. It does a heart good to spread kindness even with the smallest gesture. All the feel-goods all around! Thank you, Vienna for helping us spread the kindness. :) #Randomactsofkindness #Maryville
2/35 - Blount County Humane Society
In January, Johnny our QC Technician and Laura our CEO surprised the volunteers at the shelter with a trunk load of cat/dog food, treats, toys, towels, and litter. This no-kill shelter runs solely on donations and is grateful for any and all help. They have the cutest and most friendly kitties and puppies...we almost ended up with an office kitty.
3/35 - Asbury Place Visit
Have you ever felt so happy and yet sad all at the same time? In February, ICC made goodie bags for residents of Asbury Place. The look on their faces when we popped in their rooms was priceless, our hearts exploded with joy. So many people in retirement communities have no one to visit with them. We can't forget about the generation that brought us into the world. A smiling face and a few minutes of time are all they want. Thank you, Asbury and Amy Wilson, for allowing us to visit. We feel blessed to have met these kind residents of our community.
4/35 - Spreading Valentines Cheer
Our acts of kindness took us all over Blount County as we handed out valentine treats to several local banks and the post office. Pass it on, you never know who needs a little love. #randomactsofkindness #blountcounty
5/35 - Mail Carriers
The week of February 19th we decided to surprise our mail carriers and shipping companies. We depend on the carriers to deliver our products safe and sound to our customers. Many times the drivers had to come a long way and have a long return drive. So over the course of a week, we gave all the pickup and delivery drivers a bag of treats for the road.
6/35 - Custodian
There's one gentleman that deserves a huge thank you from us. His name is Warren and he keeps our facility nice and clean week in and week out. He comes to work after hours so we didn't get his photo but we heard from our 2nd shift crew that Warren was quite tickled and proudly showing off his treats. Thank you again Warren for all your hard work!
7/35 - Have you ever been one quarter short? Sure, we've all been there. Digging deep into your pockets, shaking your purse to one side looking for every last bit of change to pay for something. Then all you come up with is lint.... Well, not this time.
In March, we visited a locally owned laundromat. We thought, “wouldn't it be a great surprise to anyone who needed to wash clothes today to walk in and find the machines were already full of money?” So that's what we did! With our pockets full of quarters, we filled up machine after machine, I think we filled nearly every washer, and had money left over to buy some soap and dryer sheets.
And thank you to the kind gentleman working at the laundromat who allowed us to run around and fill the machines. :)
8/35 - Cintas
Fast and friendly, the guys at Cintas are great folks to work with. They keep our guys’ uniforms and shop mats clean and ready to go all with a smile on their faces, so we treated our delivery man to a gift card and thank you card.
9/35 - Cakes delivered to Teachers at Walland Elementary School
We heard from a friend about what an amazing job the teachers do at Walland Elementary and we thought, “who more deserving to receive a random act of kindness?” We began thinking of an appropriate treat. Sure, doughnuts would have been good, but bundt cakes are even better! We hope all the teachers and staff enjoyed their surprise.
10/35 - Foster Care Donation Drive
ICC Employees brought in new and gently used clothing, toys and shoes for the Blount County division of TN Fosters. We collected over 10 bags of donations for the non-profit. The TN Foster program ensures every child of any age receives a care package of brand new items when they are placed with a new family. For more information on the organization, their needs and to become a foster parent visit their website.
11/35 - Administrative Assistant Day
We can't even imagine where we'd be without Lana. She's hard working, diligent, kind and a little spunky. So we had to surprise her with gift to show our appreciation for all she does for every single person in the building.
12/35 - Donations to the 2nd Harvest Radio-thon
Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee hosted their fourth annual MAYDAY Radio-thon and open house on May 1st to raise $200,000 for Food for Kids programs, which will provide more than 266,000 meals in 18 East Tennessee counties. Some of the ladies at ICC heard the radio promotion and headed over to make personal donations and, of course, garner the cute t-shirts.
13/35 - Mudder's Day Sponsorship
When you have employees who want to run and workout together, we had to give them some support. So ICC sponsored their team and bought everyone matching t-shirts with their team name, "A Mudder One Bites the Dust".
14/35 - Blount County Habitat for Humanity - Construction Couture Luncheon Sponsorship
ICC regularly donates to the Habitat for Humanity, Women Build Fundraiser, but this year we also participated in the event with a team submission. The challenge was to construct a dress using at least 50% construction materials. ICC built a dress using 95% building materials. Over 1,000 copper washers adorned the dress, there's a building permit attached to a saw-blade fascinator, and we even made a necklace out of a house key.
15/35 - Hiding Kindness Stones at a local park
We didn't get to see the look on peoples faces when they found these stones, but we're pretty sure smiles ensued. I know we had fun painting the stones. We set up all the supplies on the breakroom table and employees would pop in and paint a stone when they had a minute.
16/35 - Surprised the Maryville Fire Department with Treat Bags
Some of the hardest working men and women in Maryville, we couldn’t forget to thank our local Fire Department. They risk their lives to saves ours and they deserve a huge Thank You.
17/35 - Handing out $5 at EASA
Every year ICC participates in the international EASA Trade Show. It's the mecca of trade shows for the electric motor industry. This year the conference was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and we thought this would be a great opportunity to take our kindness campaign and spread it across the country and possibly the world. So we rolled up one thousand dollars worth of $5 bills, added a note asking people to 'pass it on' and started handing them out to everyone. The response was overwhelming, people loved the idea and immediately started thinking of ways to pass it on.
18/35 - Surprise 4th of July Party
Willie was in the house! July was a crazy busy month at ICC and we wanted to surprise the staff. Everyone received a red, white and blue bandanna along with chips, candies and drinks, just a little treat to say thank you.
19/35 - Heritage High School Football Team Sponsorship
20/35 - Making Cards for sick Children in the Hospital - Here's how you can participate in the program.
This was fun! We put craft materials out on the break room table and asked everyone to stop and make a card f they had 5 minutes to spare. We ended up with nearly 100 cards to send off. It broke our hearts to think about the kids with terminal illnesses, but if even one card put a smile on one face for even a moment, it was worth it.
21/35 - New Hopewell Elementary School Supplies Donation
So many kids simply can’t afford to buy school supplies. And how many times have we heard about teachers spending a significant portion of their salaries to buy supplies for the classroom? We knew we could help, so we started a school supply donation drive and donated tons of crayons, scissors, glue and activities to New Hopewell School.
22/35 - Delivering surprise treats to the Maryville Police Department
The women and men in blue deserve so much more, but these goodie bags were a small token of our appreciation for all they do day in and day out to protect the citizens (and businesses) of Maryville.
23/35 - Surprise Chick-fil-A lunch and S'Mores treats for all employees
Pictured here are a few of the guys who worked non-stop the month of the July, one of our busiest months in the history of the company. Thank you everyone!
24/35 - Surprise Baseball Outing
It was a great day at the ballpark! ICC treated all employees and their families to a Smokies Baseball game complete with a ball cap, beer and Calhoun's buffet. It was great to see everyone outside the shop and we hope you enjoyed the afternoon
25/35 - Stranded Gentleman
Sometimes opportunities fall in your lap (or in your parking lot). We don’t have a photo, but a young gentleman leaving his 2nd shift job had the misfortune of having his brakes go out. He was able to get his truck stopped just in time, in our parking lot. We offered to pay to have his truck towed (but he had AAA), but we did bring him food, water and and a place to rest while he waited on help. :)
26/35 - Donate Pumpkins to a Local First Grade Class
Pumpkins are fun so we thought, “wouldn’t it be great for kids to have the opportunity to carve pumpkins at school?” The kids loved it and the teachers did too. The teachers used the pumpkins as a way to teach about seeds, germination and how plants grow.
27/35 - Homes FORE! Humanity
This was a new sponsorship for ICC International this year. We chose to sponsor a hole on the green to support this fundraiser for the Blount Habitat for Humanity,
28/35 - We bought lunch for people at Buddy’s BBQ
We had the best two days with our 35 Acts of Kindness campaign. We bought lunch for over 20 people at Buddy's bar-b-q! It's hard to explain the feeling you get when you see someone's eyes light up and a huge smile spread across their face, but it's contagious and that's what the campaign is all about.
One of the customers, whose lunch we bought, tracked us down and delivered this note and $10 to pay it forward. We'd like to say Thank You to this kind, anonymous friend. You made our faces light up today and we'll use your donation towards our canned food drive benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee. Thank you, kind friend, and Buddy's for helping us spread kindness!
29/35 - Surprise Halloween T-shirts and Treats for all the Employees
30/35 - United Way Gas Day
Eighteen E-Z Stop, Kenjo and Pilot stations had United Way volunteers pumping gas and washing windshields. Five cents from every gallon of gas sold and 100 percent of tips given to volunteers went back to United Way of Blount County. ICC donated time and spent the afternoon pumping gas to support the cause.
31/35 - Second Harvest Canned Food Drive
It breaks our heart to think there are people in this world and in our community that go hungry. It was an easy decision to support Second Harvest as part of our 35 Acts of Kindness campaign. Our 30 employees brought in over 700 pounds of nonperishable goods for the non-profit. Way to go, team!
32/35 - Chick-fil-A Surprise
Have you ever had the car in front of you pay for your order? If not, believe us, it will make your day. You will be smiling from ear to ear telling all your friends. We love that feeling and wanted to share it, so we passed it on by buying lunch for a few people.
33/35 - Boys and Girls Club Angel Tree Donation
ICC sponsored 30 children in the Boys and Girls Club Program. Employees were encouraged to choose a child and fulfill their Christmas gift lists. No child should go without a Christmas gift, so this is a program ICC supports every year. This year though, we chose to sponsor even more children.
34/35 - Paying on Layaway Bills
The holidays are expensive, especially if you have a large family and several children. So, we decided to surprise a few families by making an anonymous payment on their layaway bills.
35/35 - Donating time to Wrap Gifts
The Blount County Habitat for Humanity needed volunteers to wrap gifts at the local mall, so we said, “Yes!” Shoppers make a donation to have their gifts wrapped. It’s a win-win for both the charity and the shopper!