CHARLOTTE — With an employee head count of more than 1,500 people, Jeff Buennemeyer knew it would be impossible to find a community service effort that resonated with everyone when ASSA ABLOY Entrance Systems launched its #TogetherWeCare initiative, but he was surprised how universally one idea was embraced.
One of the main initiatives is sponsored by the 24-Hour Foundation and comes in the form of a 24-hour bike ride in a three-mile residential area of Charlotte. It’s grown to an organization that has more than 1,000 participants and more than 100 company teams every year.
Last year’s ride raised more than $1.5 million to help families and people affected by cancer.
“I think we all have our cancer story, whether it was ourselves or whether it was somebody in our family or close friends,” says Buennemeyer, the company’s president for North America and South America. “Cancer is a disease that impacts a lot of people and I do believe it’s a disease that can be defeated.
“We as individuals, as automatic door company, we’re not going to beat cancer, but we can play a role in those that are out there fighting,” he says, noting his wife battled Stage 4 bone cancer and he first saw the riders as he drove home following his wife’s cancer surgery.
“Fortunately, my wife recovered has been cancer-free now for almost four years, but a year later, as we were looking at the causes, I said, ‘Let’s do this one,’ because it was close to me and I also believe it was close to others in our group,” says Buennemeyer.
“It’s not a race. It’s not an endurance event. If you want to ride for 24 hours, that’s fine. If you want to ride one lap, that’s fine too. It’s all about raising money and trying to help this organization raise funds towards cancer,” he says.
ASSA ABLOY’s team has grown from about 30 people in 2023, the first year, to about 90 this year. Some of the employees walked the 3-mile course, including one employee who walked for the entire 24-hour period, while others rode their bikes and some ran the circuit.
“It’s an opportunity for us to come together as a team to be able to celebrate, but also to do it in a way that’s meaningful for those that need it,” says Buennemeyer, noting the company raised the third-highest amount of money for the effort ($53,000) in its 2024 participation.
“It’s really a fun event,” he says. “There are people that live in the neighborhood throwing parties in the 3-mile loop. There were four live bands, people set up bars and just have a good time. It’s really a very family-friendly sort of thing. There are little kids that stand up in the street high-fiving you as you as you ride by on your bikes and you people cheering you on.”
Service Brings ASSA ABLOY Employees Together
Buennemeyer saw a different side of his co-workers when he announced plans for ASSA ABLOY to participate in the around-the-clock charity bike ride.
“Everybody has a cancer story and I’m responsible for an organization of 1,500 individuals so we communicated this to the whole organization,” he says. “I had so many people who wrote back to me they were either dealing with cancer themselves or they had a family member who was dealing with cancer.
“As a large organization, these are people that are far away on the West Coast who may not even. I was able to hear their stories and listen to them and I feel for them. I think anybody who’s been through that journey can empathize with their situation,” says Buennemeyer.
Together We Care is a company-wide program that spreads the philanthropy across all of the communities where ASSA ABLOY employees live and work.
“I’m a strong, strong believer that companies are about people,” says Buennemeyer. “They’re not really about products. Products are just a result of what those people do and supporting our customers and taking care of them with products and solutions.
“An important part of our company is our culture. It’s very important that we’re involved with our communities. We want to be a company that’s involved with the local community, so we’re more than just a company that makes automatic doors across America. We strongly believe that, when we come together for key purposes, we can make a big difference in our local communities,” he says.
How Service Permeates Everything in the Company
ASSA ABLOY urges employees to come up with causes for the company to support throughout the year under the Together We Care umbrella, says Buennemeyer. Perhaps the biggest response happened during the holiday season, with toy drives, trips to local soup kitchens and more.
“The truth is a lot of our team members do this anyway,” says Buennemeyer. “There are a lot of offices that will do things at Christmas to help the community and this is just a way for us to help shine a spotlight on that and to communicate what’s going on.”
ASSA ABLOY also hosted a luncheon for an employee’s father battling Alzheimer’s disease and all of his fellow residents for what’s known as The Longest Day in June. Employees also contributed to a slideshow with family members who had been through a similar struggle, says vice president of marketing Karen Maslow.
“We want to help, but we also want to forge an emotional connection,” she says. “It unites us on a different level than just being colleagues to be able to share these stories.”
“Nobody wants to work for a company that’s all about just making more money,” says Buennemeyer. “They all want to be a part of a community that is making a difference out there. They want to be part of a team they feel like is positive and they have great products and they have great customers, but they want to be more than that.
“They want to be with people they like. They want to be around people that are ethical. They want to be around people that are compassionate. They want to be around people that are just good friends and colleagues,” says Buennemeyer.
He says it’s important to ask employees which causes are most important to them and to try to help as many of those initiatives as possible. The most important thing when it comes to giving back, though, is just picking a cause or causes to support and going forward with passion.
“Pick a cause and go for it and if you want to change that cause next time, change it,” says Buennemeyer. “You never get there if you don’t get started. Sometimes it’s just about taking that first step. You try and find something that’s easy. Don’t make it really hard.”
If you participated in Security Industry Community Service Day or are involved in other service-based initiatives, contact SSI digital editor Craig MacCormack at [email protected] to be part of our ongoing Security Gives Back series.
Click here to read all our Security Gives Back coverage!
