2011 STAR Award Employee Group Winners: United Auto Workers

In a partnership with the Kalamazoo Gazette, we are pleased to feature their STAR Award winner stories. To view the original of this article, please click here to be taken to the Kalamazoo Gazette’s website.

By Jef Rietsma | The Kalamazoo Gazette

Photo by Jerry Campbell

KALAMAZOO — Dick Knowlton said he was a bit embarrassed after finding out he and some other workers from the former General Motors Corp. Stamping Plant were chosen as recipients of a 2011 STAR Award.
Usually a man of few words, Knowlton had plenty to say about the commitment a group of about 15 workers made nearly three decades ago when United Auto Workers 488 formed a Veterans Committee.

“It was 1986, the work was good and a group of us felt we needed to do something to help our veterans,” said Knowlton, a 66-year-old Kalamazoo resident and three-year Army veteran, who was stationed in Germany in the mid-1960s. “We didn’t do all this in hopes of getting recognized by the paper. It was just the right thing to do.”
The group approached the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Battle Creek, and the result was a partnership in which the volunteers work with the patients and greet visitors at the hospital.
That relationship has continued even after production at the GM plant, located on Sprinkle Road in Comstock Township, ended in 1997.

In recognition of their efforts, the former plant employees have earned a STAR (Sharing Time and Resources) Award in the category of Employee Volunteer Group.

“It brings us all a lot of gratification to know we are making some lives better,” Knowlton said.

Partnering with patients

At the center, the former plant employees created an Ambassador/Greeter Program, in which they work in tandem with patients to provide information and greet and escort visitors and incoming patients. Knowlton said the program has helped provide a positive first impression for newcomers to the hospital.
“It never hurts to be greeted by a friendly face … someone who can be helpful,” he said.
Nancy Babcock, chief of the medical center’s community and volunteer services, said the program is important because the volunteers work with patients in the hospital’s Compensated Work Therapy Program. That program helps patients improve their skills to get a job.

“The support of the UAW through volunteer time, and in-kind and monetary donations in the past year, has helped to further our patient-centered care philosophy,” Babcock said. “Their support has enhanced the environment of care and the lives of our veteran patients.”

The UAW volunteers also are involved in other ways.

They participate in the hospital’s annual summer picnic, patient carnival, provide items to the hospital’s snack cart and help wrap and distribute Christmas gifts. Many have provided financial and in-kind donations, such as purchasing the large-screen televisions located throughout the center’s day rooms.
Money raised through a raffle organized by the volunteers was used to buy a pontoon boat. The boat is popular during the summer months, when patients and the UAW volunteers cruise Goguac Lake.

Knowlton said a lot of friendships have emerged from the partnership with the hospital, evidenced by some of the volunteers traveling nearly 100 miles round-trip to participate in the program.

“We’ve all said that it could be any one of us in there some time down the road, and we think about how much we’d appreciate the effort some group might take to make our lives a bit brighter,” Knowlton said.

Comments are closed.