Nearly 200 boys and girls in the Roanoke Valley will get a new bike for Christmas, thanks to a team building operation by Advance Auto Parts employees. More than 260 employees at the Store Support Center in Roanoke signed up in four days and there was even a waiting list, says Tammy Finley, Sr. VP of Human Resources.
“If you can tap into competition with our team, that is usually a sure sign of success for an event. We work very hard, we like to have fun and competing against each other makes it all the more interesting, I think, for the team. But they have a lot of fun with it, too.”
“[In] events like this I think the benefit is two-fold. The community is going to benefit. There’s going to be almost 200 kids in the Roanoke Valley that are going to get bikes that we built. But our team’s going to also benefit because they’re going to have some great team building, fellowship, and fun today, together.”
Finley urges other companies to follow their lead.
”Partner with their local non-profits and community groups because there’s lots of ways that you can tie in community giving and engagement with team building. I mean certainly writing checks and supporting organizations is very important and we do that, too. But I think when you look for how can you get your team to volunteer and get engaged, there’s even more value to that.”
The goal was simple. . . for each team to build eight bikes within 90 minutes. And they had to pass a quality assurance test. Some teams sported their own team shirts and others had a strategy-who would open the boxes containing the bicycle parts, who would clean up the trash, etc. Before the competition started, some workers sized up their socket wrenches with a completed bike on display. There was no practicing beforehand.
Tom Zion is with the Store Planning and Design Department.
“We basically design stores-floor layouts and stuff so we’re hoping it might be an advantage, we’ll see as we start putting them together.”
“I’m trying to do it just to help out kids; build bikes for kids for Christmas. So, we’re trying to do something good to help the kids in the area.”
The Star City Corvette Club has been doing it for years but this year decided to make it a competition.
Also on hand were representatives from Toys for Tots, the Salvation Army, and the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets, who delayed leaving for Thanksgiving vacation to help out.
Major General Randy Fullhart, of the Corps of Cadets reminded those present, “You’re not building bikes today, you’re building dreams. Building memories that you’re going to have some young girl, some young boy, raise their hand years from now and talk about the memory of that special bike that they got from someone that they don’t even know who took the time and the effort and the care and the joy to build something for someone else.”
– Beverly Amsler
