At TECO, volunteering our time to help those in need and create stronger communities is a part of who we are – and the numbers prove it. In 2015, people across the company, in Florida and at New Mexico Gas Company, donated a record 20,533 hours to make a positive difference in the lives of others.
And the joy? That comes from not just the pride, camaraderie and enjoyment we get in being active in the community; it’s also the name of the TECO volunteer randomly selected as the winner of our annual Volunteer contest: Joy Evans. Evans, document processor, donated time in 2015 for Pepin Academies, a tuition-free, Tampa-based nonprofit charter school that educates students in kindergarten through college with diagnosed learning and learning-related disabilities.
One of her co-workers, in fact, is Associate Document Processor Ricky Boyette, the longest-tenured TECO team member (at eight years with the company) who graduated from Pepin. Joining Evans and Boyette on TECO’s Document Services team are other students from Pepin who contribute daily to help TECO run.
“They’re so important to us here at TECO,” Evans said of the students from Pepin. “They take on critical tasks like binding materials, packaging communications and sending out shipments – and they not only do a terrific job; they’re wonderful to work with. It’s been incredible to watch their development as professionals at TECO.”
In addition to an annual Volunteer program winner at TECO, the company randomly selects team members to honor quarterly. For the fourth quarter of 2015, they included Walter Reed, account manager with Industrial Accounts, who donated time to the Bausch & Lomb Health and Safety Fair, and Cindy Amor, consulting engineer with Efficiency & Process Improvements. As Chair of the Advisory Board for the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering department at the University of South Florida, she helps students develop as engineers – something that benefits them, her company and the communities TECO serves.
As for Evans, she said she plans to keep finding ways to make a difference in the community – and she’s confident team members across TECO will too.
“I encourage everyone I work with – and everyone who can, actually – to find a way to give back to the community,” she said. “You never know how many hearts you might touch.”
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