Dow Employees Volunteer 20,000 Hours to Community in 2006

Dow Louisiana Operations volunteers are the heart of community outreach efforts. Every year Dow volunteers give their time to numerous community projects to improve the quality of life in the surrounding community. In 2006, approximately 600 Dow and contract employee volunteers gave more than 20,000 hours to support more than 45 area community projects.

In the area of education, thousands of individuals were reached in area communities through activities like Back to School, "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 2006 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.

Blood Drives

Blood Drives conducted in 2006 collected nearly 1,298 pints of blood & platelets from Dow employees, contract employees and retirees. The monetary value for this collection is approximately $413,000. For the 12th straight year, Our Lady of the Lake Blood Center has recognized the Louisiana Operations Ruth Gandour Memorial Blood Bank for having the most successful blood drive in the capital area. Dow is the only site that Our Lady of the Lake will travel for platelet donors – in 2006 Louisiana Operations had 166 platelet donors

Habitat for Humanity homes built on the Westside

In celebration of 50 years in Louisiana, over 50 Dow Louisiana Operations volunteers joined Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge, Volunteers from Dayton, OH, Americorps and members of the Westside community to build 4 homes in Plaquemine, LA. The 4-home “Beat the Heat” week-long Habitat blitz in May took place in Plaquemine. The homes were built for local families as well as an ongoing effort to build homes for families affected by Hurricanes Katrina.

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 2006, visiting residents and answering questions about area industry and emergency preparedness.