Vale and the United Steelworkers Local 6500 teamed up raise $750,000 for the United Way of Sudbury and the Nipissing District.
Campaign chair and Northern Ontario Business publisher Patricia Mills celebrated by carving a “V” into Vale executive Kelly Strong’s hair on Jan. 7.
Strong, the company's vice-president of Ontario and UK operations, promised to have his head shaved if his employees raised $375,000.
Vale then matched the donations,
bringing the joint contribution up to $750,000 — the most the
company and its employees have donated for eight years.
“It was
the least I could do as far as a contribution to this whole day to
United Way,” Strong said. “The acknowledgement's got to go to the
employees. They're the ones that dug deep and year after year
contribute back to the community.”
For the past 31 years, the union and the mining giant (formerly Inco) have worked together to promote the campaign.
“We're going to continue to work together,
making sure we reach that goal and helping the community,” said
Steelworkers Local 6500 president Rick Bertrand.
“It's a
great thing to do.”
The Vale-Steelworkers campaign is a “huge part” of the organization's core funding for the year, Mills said.
She said it's overwhelming how the campaign reached an eight-year high, given the current business climate and the numerous other charities competing for fundraising dollars.
