The Des Moines team deliver their donations to George Washington Carver Community School.

By Cathy Maddox – Ownership Coordinator | Corporate
and Michelle Kaldenberg – Accountant | Des Moines

During a Strategic Planning Meeting held earlier this year, the Commonwealth Ownership Committee elected to sponsor a company-wide Back-to-School Supply Drive. Our Des Moines, IA, location’s Culture Committee held a very successful drive in 2022, and the committee wanted to build on that success at all locations, including both office and field employees, in the collection of donations.

We are very proud to announce our first Annual Back-to-School Supply Drive was a huge success, with over 6,300 items donated to various schools. Each location chose a school they felt would best benefit from the donations, contacted the school, and received a list of the most needed items. The school administrators our locations worked with were extremely appreciative of our company’s willingness to donate and help children who cannot always begin school with all the necessary supplies.

The Des Moines, IA, office was the catalyst for this company-wide initiative, conducting its first school supply drive in 2022 and contributing 1,189 items to Moulton Elementary School, a local school within the community. The experience was so fulfilling that the Des Moines Culture Committee decided to make the school supply drive an annual event.

This year, the Des Moines branch collected and donated 1,500 items, beating last year’s total by 311 items. The school supplies were donated to George Washington Carver Community School, which is another school in the community. The supplies will help many students in need and help keep teachers’ classrooms stocked.
Our Phoenix location did an outstanding job of not only collecting items but also involving our field personnel and suppliers we work with. Graybar and Wesco, both companies Commonwealth does business with, were very generous with donations of backpacks and other supplies and were very excited to be able to participate in the drive.

Meanwhile, Rydalch Electric, a Commonwealth Company in Salt Lake City, UT, expanded on their drive and received monetary donations towards paying for school lunches! This year was Rydalch’s first time participating in a company-wide drive, and they collected 335 items.

All nine locations did an outstanding job of promoting the Back-to-School School Supply Drive and collecting and delivering all the donations. Thanks to the drive’s success, plans are already in place to expand our efforts in 2024. Many thanks to the Ownership Committee for organizing the event!