Brunswick partners with United Way for students in Minnesota

Employees of Brunswick Corporation’s New York Mills Operation, home of Lund and Crestliner boats, recently partnered with the United Way to host its second annual Stuff the Boat event to help local families with back to school supply needs. A new twist to this year’s event was the addition of a boat raffle which was used to raise additional funds on top of the donations of school supplies.

Early this spring the Employee Activities Committee started the planning and worked with the local New York Mills VFW to establish a boat raffle for a Lund 1675 Adventure SS with a Mercury 75 HP engine. Employees then sold raffle tickets around the community to raise nearly $10,000.  The funds raised will be split between two programs with half going towards the Stuff the Boat program while the other half will be donated to the New York Mills school activity fund. 

“Last year we were able to help over 100 families with back to school needs and our employees were looking for a way to build upon last year’s success to make an even larger impact on our local community”, said Mary Allen, a member of the committee. “Our employees were just looking to make a larger impact and the raffle boat seemed like a perfect opportunity”.

Later in the summer the Employee Activities Committee began their campaign to collect school supplies by organizing various drop-off locations throughout the facility and sent out communications to kick off the program and raise awareness. The program was promoted heavily throughout the facility and the collection bins began to fill. 

“At this time every year our employees are shopping for their own families back-to-school needs and the timing was perfect again this year for a great campaign like this,” stated Liz Holzer, another member of the committee. “It is important for us as a company to help our local schools, and it is a great feeling to know that our families who may need some additional help will have the necessary supplies they need to begin school this year. We are excited to be a part of this campaign and extremely proud of all our employees who helped make this such a tremendous success.”

The Brunswick New York Mills Employee Activities Committee looks for different ways for the company to get involved locally and to help make an impact in the community.  The committee is comprised of 14 employees from different areas throughout the operation. The committee members will deliver the checks and the Stuff the Boat school supplies next week.