CSX launches community service project
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-ChiefCSX Corp. said Thursday it has begun an eight-month-long community service project, entitled Beyond Our Rails: Project Sanctuary (www.beyondourrails.org), that infuses five days of management training between now and February 2012 with the company’s core value of giving back to the communities where its employees live and work.
Through painting, mending fences, replacing windows, and building new gardens and a compost bin, CSX has committed to revitalizing The Sanctuary on 8th Street, a learning haven for children in one of the Jacksonville, Fla.’s toughest neighborhoods, while instilling a greater sense of community connectedness in its next generation of leaders from around the country.
Beginning this Saturday, groups of newly hired or promoted CSX managers will team with CSX’s existing management ranks at The Sanctuary on 8th Street to renovate the early 1900s-era building and surrounding grounds. CSX says 500 employees will work an estimated 1,200 service hours during the project, and for every hour volunteered, the CSX Foundation will direct $10 to a charitable organization of each employee’s choice through its Dollars for Doers program.
Tori Kaplan, director of corporate citizenship for CSX, said, “It is a long-standing belief at CSX that helping to build stronger communities makes us better as a company. The challenges that the kids at Sanctuary on 8th Street are up against are daunting. Our hope is to provide them with a greater sense of pride in this special place where they play, work and learn—all while further cultivating CSX’s commitment to service in every member of our management team.”
Originally built as the United States’ sixth established post office, The Sanctuary on 8th Street purchased its building in May of 1999 to serve as the headquarters for this non-profit organization which provides after school programs, summer camps and a home school for inner-city children, many of whom live in poverty.
