LSC Communications gave $1,500 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kosciusko County on Monday, July 10. From left: LSC VP of Manufacturing John Pierog, LSC EHS Representative Belinda Conrad, LSC EHS Manager Tori Newsome, Kosciusko County BBBS Community Development Director Tammy Smith and LSC Charitable Contributions Coordinator Cindy Ambrose. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — LSC Communications’ Warsaw plant won a companywide contest for its giving back for Earth Day.

In turn, the plant then gave back again to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kosciusko County.

Employees presented Kosciusko County BBBS Community Development Director Tammy Smith with a check for $1,500 on Monday, July 10.

LSC VP of Manufacturing John Pierog explained to media members how the donation came about.

“We had Earth Day events, and we went out and did some work at Grace College … on their prairie field out there,” he said. “We also did some work around the plant, just trying to clean up and improve the environment with that.”

“As part of that, we presented our Earth Day activities back to the company, and we won a contest just for the activities that we did,” he continued. “The contest winner received the opportunity to make a donation to the charity of the plant’s choice … We asked all of our employees to nominate various charities and then we voted on that, and Big Brothers Big Sisters was the winner of that.”

“What we learned from our employees is that there were many employees in our plant that had been touched by (BBBS), either working with Big Brothers Big Sisters themselves or being a recipient of their services in the past growing up,” said Pierog.

Smith said the $1,500 will go for “a gold sponsorship at our upcoming fundraiser, The Big Celebration, in September.”

LSC will have a table for employees at the event, and the actual funds will “go towards enrolling kids that obviously need these services, recruiting the volunteers, our Bigs, and … the ongoing support services for the matches here in Kosciusko County,” said Smith.

“It’s always good to see us all come together to support our community in whatever way we can and it’s good to involve people when they have a choice of whom to donate to, so it was really exciting to see all the votes and to hear some brief stories on why (employees) chose (BBBS),” said LSC Charitable Contributions Coordinator Cindy Ambrose. “It’s obvious that it’s an impactful charitable organization.”

Smith added she was happy employees picked BBBS due to “saying they had been touched by the program or been involved with us in some way.”

“We’re very thankful for the generous donation,” she added.