Dallas Airmotive implemented SafeStart into their company five years ago, around the time they were looking for a way to give back to the community. One of the company’s employees sat on the board for Grapevine Relief and Community Exchange (GRACE) and suggested their Feed Our Kids Program. The program helps underprivileged children within the community and it provided the perfect opportunity for Dallas Airmotive to share their success with those around them. Because the company had tremendous success with SafeStart, they decided to share their safety skills and training with the Feed Our Kids Program.
“If you have a history with SafeStart and you’ve had success with SafeStart, taking that to the community just only makes you better as an organization,” explains Doug Meador, President of Dallas Airmotive. “The real reason we do safety is to be a really great company and to be a really great company your people have to really feel good about who they’re working for. To feel good about who you’re working for you have to be safe and you have to feel like the company’s going to take care of not only you but also have an interest in your family and we extend the family to our community. So I see it as a logical extension for any company that wants to be really, really great at what they do.”
The Feed Our Kids Program is designed to provide a nutritious meal to children who are on the school lunch program during the summer months when they are not receiving these lunches because school’s out. Dallas Airmotive introduced SafeStart and the Boo Boo Bandits to the children in this program as a way to incorporate safety as part of the various activities they coordinate before, during and after they eat their lunches. The need to help struck close to home, as most of the children in the program reside within a few blocks of their facility. Dallas Airmotive has been providing lunch and engaging the children in this program at least one week out of the summer, if not more, for the past five years.
As part of their SafeStart coaching, they have trained the children on how to tell a SafeStart story. Last year, every child that submitted a SafeStart story received a ticket and they had a draw for new bicycles. Not only did these children receive a nutritious lunch and learn how to be safer 24/7, but they also had the chance to win a brand-new bicycle—a truly touching gesture by Dallas Airmotive.
We encourage all of our clients to take SafeStart home and into their communities and support numerous initiatives like this around the world to help keep children safer. While it’s not uncommon for us to hear of initiatives likes these, we recognize what an incredible effort and commitment this demonstrates and congratulate Dallas Airmotive for giving back to their community and being an exemplary SafeStart Champion.