Dow Employees Volunteer 20,000 Hours to Community in 2005

	Dow Louisiana Operations employees were honored at a Volunteer Recognition Breakfast. More than 20,000 hours were volunteered by more than 600 employees in 2005 to assist area communities in a variety of activities.

Over 600 employees at Dow's Louisiana Operations spent more than 20,000 hours volunteering their time to assist with activities to benefit area communities in 2005.

In the area of education, thousands of individuals were reached in area communities through activities like Back to School, Come Back Kids recognition, "Hands-on" Science Curriculum, Science is pHun, Junior Achievement, student job shadowing, student mentoring, scholarships, science fairs and Dow plant tours.

Some of the other volunteer efforts included: providing toys for needy children in Iberville and WBR parishes through the annual Dow/MCA toy drive; collecting food and monetary donations for area food banks; participating in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica; United Way Campaign; collecting waste materials during Household Hazardous Materials Day; visiting 1,500 near neighbors to provide emergency information; Habitat for Humanity; contributing to the Our Lady of the Lake's blood bank.

According to Louisiana Operations Site Leader Lee Trusty, "Employee volunteers are the heart of our community outreach efforts. Louisiana Operations employees and contractors have gone the extra mile to give their time and talents to help our communities, and I encourage them to continue to do so."

Household Hazardous Materials Day (HHMD) Dow employees volunteered their time for Household Hazardous Materials Day (HHMD) held in April 2005 at the Wal-Mart parking lot in Plaquemine and at Memorial Stadium in Baton Rouge. The Plaquemine and Baton Rouge sites collected thousands of pounds of old pesticides, paints, garden chemicals, oil and other unused household products. Dow provides proper disposal of the unwanted chemicals, which prevents them from being disposed in municipal landfills.
Habitat for Humanity homes built on the Westside Dow volunteers helped build four Habitat for Humanity homes in 2005, one in Port Allen and three in Plaquemine. More than 100 volunteers gave countless hours of their time to help build quality houses for deserving partner families.
Supplies for the new school year Dow employees hand out bags of school supplies to several of the students from Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes that attended the "Back to School on the Westside" in August. More than 900 students, parents and volunteers participated in the event.
Visiting with neighbors Dow volunteers visit with one of the nearly 1,500 residents of the North Plaquemine area during the door-to-door campaign. Employees from the chemical industry, the Iberville Office of Emergency Preparedness, Plaquemine Fire and Police Departments and the Iberville Parish Sheriff's Office walked neighborhoods in the fall of 2005, visiting residents and answering questions about area industry and emergency preparedness.