Zimmer Biomet collected items to donate to both Baker Youth Club of Warsaw and the Kosciusko Community YMCA’s Kids Club Program. The company presented BYC with the items on Wednesday, Dec. 15. From left: Zimmer Biomet Human Resources Coordinator Angela Krebs, BYC Executive Director Tracy Furnivall and Zimmer Biomet’s Manufacturing Supervisor Aaron Miller, Supervisor Herman Lucas, Manufacturing Supervisor Joe Ladig, Manufacturing Supervisor Tyler Akers, Human Resources Associate Director Jennifer Hlutke, Human Resources Manager Patty Hoffer-Steele, Engineering and Maintenance Supervisor Brian Fiedler, Human Resources Associate Director Len Tusa, Training Manager Dale Campbell and Manufacturing Supervisor Aaron Mosley. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Baker Youth Club has received some Christmas gifts early this year.

Zimmer Biomet presented the Warsaw non-profit organization with items such as snacks, juice boxes, basketballs, crayons, games and more on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

It’s the second year that the company’s managers, supervisors and team members collected items for BYC, which provides before- and after-school programs for kids.

Zimmer Biomet employees also collected needed items for the Kosciusko County YMCA’s Kids Club Program and presented those on Tuesday, Dec. 14.

Zimmer Biomet employees opted to give to BYC and the YMCA because the organizations give so much to the company.

“Zimmer Biomet relies on these programs a lot with the community, especially in the last 18 months with COVID and everything else going on,” said Zimmer Biomet Engineering and Maintenance Supervisor Brian Fiedler. “So it’s a real I don’t want to say comfort but to know that we can rely on Baker Youth and the YMCA to help out. So a lot of our team members utilize their services, so it’s just a way to give back.”

“With COVID when that hit, our team members were concerned about the e-learning days, the days off like that their kids have to be in quarantine or that they would have to be off, so it’s just really nice that the Baker Youth Club and the YMCA, their programs are open for tutoring and to help even on those e-learning days, so that our team members can still come to work and they don’t have to be concerned about their kids,” added Zimmer Biomet Human Resources Coordinator Angela Krebs. “So the supervisors really rallied behind that because it just means a lot that their team members can come to work and get their job done without worrying about their kids.”

BYC Executive Director Tracy Furnivall was grateful for the items.

“First of all, thank you to everybody and to all your departments and all of your team members. This is a huge blessing,” he said. “We serve 400 juice boxes a week, so those are in high demand. And then of course when you’ve got 180 kids in the afternoon, 90 kids in the morning kicking basketballs that they’re not supposed to be kicking or the volleyballs and dodgeballs and everything, we just go through a lot out of this stuff, so we were just organizing the downstairs after last year’s load to make room, so we had one box left of our basketballs, that was all we had left from everything from last year so and some Kleenexes too, but you guys killed it so we again thank you, we’re so blessed to have Zimmer Biomet in our community and so thankful for that.”

Furnivall told InkFreeNews that the club has about 400 kids registered for programs with it serving about 270 a day through its Warsaw location. It also serves a few kids up in the Syracuse area.

Zimmer Biomet also gave $2,000 to BYC on Wednesday through its foundation as part of its year-end giving. The company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Associate Manager Tabatha McDonald presented the check.