Ridgefield, CT – April 11, 2011 – Boehringer Ingelheim employees across the U.S. are taking part in a number of volunteer activities this week to help individuals and families in their communities. Their efforts are tied to National Volunteer Week (April 10-16, 2011) which celebrates ordinary people doing extraordinary things to improve communities. The time employees volunteer during National Volunteer Week will contribute to the company’s goal of 15,000 volunteer hours in 2011. Employee volunteerism stories are also being debuted online today at us.boehringer-ingelheim.com.
"For more than 125 years, Boehringer Ingelheim has been committed to doing the right thing around the world and in our own communities," said J. Martin Carroll, president and chief executive officer, Boehringer Ingelheim Corporation. "The generosity of the many Boehringer Ingelheim employees who will volunteer not only this week, but throughout the year, demonstrates this commitment."
Employees at Boehringer Ingelheim businesses are participating in a range of activities that help address unmet needs in their local communities. At Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Ridgefield, CT, employees will paint four colorful murals to decorate hallways of local hospitals and cheer patients and families. They will also deliver more than 500 Buddy Baskets that employees donated filled with toys and educational and personal care items for underserved children aged 3-5 in the Danbury area. This is the third year that Boehringer Ingelheim employees alone have been able to supply all the baskets needed by Project Head Start in our local community. In the 14-year history of the local program, Boehringer Ingelheim is the only company to have achieved this.
Ohio operating units, Boehringer Ingelheim Roxane, Inc., Roxane Laboratories, Inc. and Ben Venue Laboratories, Inc. will hold employee campaigns to support the Ronald McDonald Houses of Cleveland and Columbus during National Volunteerism Week. Activities include fundraising and the collection of durable and non-durable goods to equip the houses and ease the burden of out-of-town families whose children are undergoing medical treatment for serious illnesses or injuries.
At Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, on Saturday, April 16, employees will volunteer for its first annual Corporate Tree Planting event in honor of Arbor Day, giving back to the St. Joseph, MO and Fort Dodge and Ames, IA communities by planting trees and shrubs to beautify and improve the environment.
At Boehringer Ingelheim Chemicals in Petersburg, VA, employees are volunteering to spend two consecutive Saturdays – known as "Rebuild Days" -- in collaboration with Rebuilding Together Petersburg to assist in renovations to a local homeowner's house in the Battersea district. As a result of the volunteer effort, the resident will be able to remain in her home.
In 2010, Boehringer Ingelheim introduced Boehringer Ingelheim Cares VolunteerMatch – an online employee engagement system that measures and tracks employee volunteer activity and provides access to local volunteer opportunities. Recently, Boehringer Ingelheim was named one of five corporate finalists for the 2011 Employee Volunteer Award by VolunteerMatch. The finalists are chosen from the more than 75 companies that collaborate with VolunteerMatch, and are determined based on four categories of benchmark measurements. The winning companies demonstrate outstanding performance in corporate volunteer engagement.
"Boehringer Ingelheim Cares VolunteerMatch is about our company’s strongest asset – our people – and measuring how much we contribute to our society – not only through our work, but through the time we give and the efforts we make to help others in need," said Albert Ros, president and chief executive officer, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
About VolunteerMatch
VolunteerMatch is a national non-profit dedicated to strengthening communities by helping good people and good causes to connect. Its award-winning online service, www.volunteermatch.org, makes it easy to find a way to make a difference by location, expertise, or availability. VolunteerMatch provides many of the nation's most recognized businesses, campuses and organizations with Web-based solutions to facilitate and track volunteer engagement at local and national levels. The VolunteerMatch network regularly welcomes more than 190,000 visitors each week and has become the preferred volunteer recruiting service for tens of thousands of participating non-profits.
About Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world's 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 145 affiliates and more than 42,000 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.
As a central element of its culture, Boehringer Ingelheim pledges to be socially responsible. Involvement in social projects, caring for employees and their families, and providing equal opportunities for all employees form the foundation of the global operations. Mutual cooperation and respect, as well as environmental protection and sustainability are intrinsic factors in all of Boehringer Ingelheim's endeavors.
In 2010, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of approximately $16.7 billion (about 12.6 billion euro) while spending almost 24% of net sales in its largest business segment, Prescription Medicines, on research and development.
For more information, please visit http://us.boehringer-ingelheim.com and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/boehringerUS.
