Company and employees take collaborative approach to support programs in education and youth services

Mayor, judge, police and community services director pose in Towne Hall at AmeriTowne

Community service is as fundamental to the corporate culture at Arrow as innovation, service and quality.  That’s why Arrow works together with its employees to improve the communities in which they live and work.  Some of the ways in which Arrow and its employees contribute include charitable donations, employee volunteer incentive programs and company matching gifts for education.  In fact, in 2004, Arrow established a formal committee to help guide the company’s charitable activities toward organizations and programs that are closely aligned with Arrow’s core values and offer the greatest opportunity for positive impact in the community.

In addition to encouraging and supporting its employees’ community service endeavors, Arrow also partners with many local nonprofit and charitable organizations that offer enrichment and assistance in the areas of education, arts and culture, the environment, health and human services, and disaster relief.  In 2008 alone, Arrow contributed to more than 70 nonprofit organizations in its communities, across the country and around the world. 

A Long Island student works diligently at Commerce Plaza

In the area of education, Arrow recently participated in two elementary school programs near its Long Island and Denver facilities, designed to teach kids about business and the value of being a good corporate citizen. 

For example, in Plainedge, N.Y., Arrow contributed to Commerce Plaza, a program in which fifth grade students participate in a simulation of the business community.  The Commerce Plaza program consists of more than 12 simulated civic and corporate “businesses” that work together to sustain and build a community.  Businesses include a newspaper, mayor’s office, bank, medical and legal offices, food court, post office and a warehouse complete with supplies.

Beforehand, more than 4,000 students spend extensive classroom time learning about business, economics, entrepreneurship and banking.  Each student is then assigned a job in a specific business.  Besides researching and learning this “job,” students spend a full day performing their job responsibilities at the business simulation event. Arrow’s donation enabled Commerce Plaza to update and enhance the warehouse business and computerize its inventory and distribution control. 

AmeriTowne citizens learn about philanthropy and make donations to real charities

In the same vein, Arrow contributed to the Young Americans Center for Financial Education’s “Send-A-School” program also benefiting fifth grade students in the Denver area.  The Send-A-School program pairs business partners with schools that want to participate in Young AmeriTowne, a hands-on experience that introduces fifth graders to the basic principles of the economic system.  Students spend classroom time learning about banking, supply and demand, government, communications, philanthropy and more.  The lessons come to life when they assume job responsibilities and run the 17 businesses of AmeriTowne for a day.  A similar program for students in the seventh grade, International Towne, offers a global economics perspective.

Arrow’s donation to the Send-A-School program allowed hundreds of students from schools in low-income neighborhoods to participate in AmeriTowne and International Towne.

For more information on Commerce Plaza in Plainedge, N.Y., call 516-799-3578
or visit  http://commerceplaza.org.

For more information on Young America’s AmeriTowne and International Towne, call 303-221-2265 or visit www.yacenter.org.

Students-turned-citizens run Young AmeriTowne for a day