We talk about a company’s culture having significance to the clients, the workforce, and the community… and it does! Culture matters! For clients, doing business with a caring culture is a big plus. Employees feel fortunate to work within a caring culture. And every year when giving thanks is in the air, the community has a caring culture to be thankful for.
This year we have asked one of our heroes, Betty-Lou Wiseman, to share her stories of building the AMS culture. Betty-Lou is President of AMS West. For years she and her husband Ken (retired CEO) enjoyed a very special relationship with the community. They were joined by Jay Catlin (current CEO) and other volunteers over the years. The employees of AMS were inspired and the Thanksgiving program became an established part of the AMS culture.
In the paragraphs below Betty-Lou tells us a bit of the history, how it started, and how giving to the community became a tradition at AMS.
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15 years ago, AMS started working with the Youth Activity League in Val Verdes to help at risk youth get jobs at AMS. We started by interviewing 12 students (16), we coached them on how to write a resume, how to dress and be confident in their interview. We hired over 10 students and continued working with Deputy Rooney from the YAL program to keep the tradition going.
This led AMS into really understanding this small community over the hill and how we could help. We started by working with the YAL leadership in a Thanksgiving donation program. They would give us a list of those in need of a full Thanksgiving dinner and we started promoting within AMS by building a grid and putting a value to each of the items and then a full dinner. Our employees could donate a bag of peas or entire turkey dinner. This really made it, so everyone felt comfortable participating in the program showing every bit counts.
Our first delivery of the dinners was eye opening. Ken, Jay and I met Deputy Rooney in Val Verdes and some of our families agreed to let us drop the meal off at their home. This is where we really saw that this community needed any help we could give. The tradition has continued over the years and with the help of Erica and Sam, it has become a smooth process.
The best part is the truck rolling up, handing a box with Turkey, potatoes, stuffing, peas, rolls, pie, and drinks, and seeing the happiness we have provided. Sometimes tears of thanks all around. It is amazing when our employees bring their children to give and pass on an amazing tradition.
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What a beautiful story. Stories like this become a treasured part of a company’s culture. It feels good to be able to meet and fill the need of families, and so beautiful for our children to see it happening. A caring culture is something we are Thankful for! Happy Thanksgiving AMS Family!
