Champions of Change Blog

Create a New Gulf Cluster for More, Better Jobs

Posted by Andy Brack on August 10, 2011 at 5:01 PM EDT

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was dead-on during a White House event for Gulf Coast Recovery Champions of Change when he observed that the Gulf of Mexico is more than a regional resource for people who live from Florida to Texas. Rather, he reminded, the Gulf is an American treasure. As such, it should become a national focus for investment and recovery.

When the Secretary met with countless Gulf residents following the oil disaster of 2010, he asked them to help to restore the Gulf. But he also people to do more -- to help make the Gulf a better place.

At the Secretary's request, the Center for a Better South last year developed some big ideas for Gulf that went beyond restoration and recovery. Over the course of three months last summer, more than two dozen people worked with the Center to generate a report chock-full of pragmatic ideas that proposed new investments in education, the environment and infrastructure to help create jobs for the future and a better quality of life for Gulf residents. We're honored that some of the work we did helped the Administration craft its recovery plan.

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Connecting with Roots in Cleveland, OH

Posted by Ari Matusiak on August 10, 2011 at 4:29 PM EDT

“My basic business philosophy is based upon evaluation criteria of the New York City kindergarten report card,” says Ron Rasmus, President and CEO of The Great Lakes Group. “Work well and play well with others.”

For the past 29 years, that’s exactly what he has done. From building a new 770 ton Mobile Vessel Hoist —the largest in the U.S. and Canada, and third largest in the world — to starting a comprehensive training program for local high school students, Rasmus has collaborated with a variety of groups to make things happen. How? The eternal optimist simply refuses to take no for an answer.

Ron Rasmus, President and CEO of The Great Lakes Group, has helped to create jobs and revitalize the local businesses of Cleveland, OH.

The most well-known of Rasmus’ companies, The Great Lakes Towing Company, owns and operates 50 tugboats, maintaining ports from the Great Lakes to the Caribbean. Throughout its 113 year history, the Towing Company, as it’s commonly called, has never forgotten its roots in Cleveland, Ohio. Its recent Shipyard Expansion project, which includes construction of the $4.2 million Mobile Vessel Hoist, has already created 30 new full-time jobs and utilized 20,000 on-site construction hours. Once completed, the Company estimates the expansion project will have created 100 sustainable local full-time jobs.

The Company’s longstanding policy of supporting Cleveland and Ohio businesses translates into a substantial economic ripple effect in local communities. Rasmus says this effect is “conservatively estimated at $0.52 from every revenue dollar that the Company receives, excluding the additional positive effect of our payroll which also supports the communities.”

The Company has also taken a proactive approach to involving local youth in many of its projects. Rasmus made sure graduates of Max S. Hayes High School, a vocational school in the Cleveland Municipal School District, knew of the employment opportunities just around the corner. Rasmus created a training program that includes classroom instruction and on-the-job welding training. A summer or full-time job offer awaits students who graduate and successfully complete the welding courses.

All the while, the Company has adjusted its business model to stay current. Besides maintaining its towing operations, which account for 99 percent of all harbor towing operations on the U.S. Great Lakes, the Company began to build and repair tugboats, barges, research vessels and other craft and foreign sales. It is now a major player in the commercially-defined shipbuilding business.

Even while leading this modernization, Rasmus has always remembered the Company’s commitment to the city and its people. “We’re corporate citizens of Cleveland and of Ohio. We have some obligations that go beyond the bottom line.”

Ari Matusiak is Executive Director of the White House Business Council

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Rebuilding Greener Neighborhoods in New Orleans

Posted by Will Bradshaw on August 10, 2011 at 10:40 AM EDT

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

I’m a transplant to New Orleans, and when you live some place like New Orleans, being a transplant matters. This is a town where people ask where you went to school, and they mean high school. A huge portion of the population lives on the block where they grew up, often in the very same house. People in New Orleans have roots, and those roots are deep and fierce. So it has always been a bit uncomfortable, being one of the people who came to New Orleans after Katrina to see how we could help.

But sitting at the White House on July 19th being honored as a Champion of Change, I felt an extraordinary allegiance to this community that has embraced me and inspired me in ways I can never fully explain. My friends here had their lives threatened by the failure of the levee system, and their response was to come home and rebuild their neighborhoods. At Green Coast Enterprises, we have had the extraordinary privilege to help in that process, and to help in a way that builds back a greener, safer, more resilient community.

Since our founding in 2007, we have helped Project Home Again Foundation build 101 homes for Katrina-displaced homeowners in the Gentilly neighborhood. Each of these homes saves the family who lives there over $750 or more in annual energy costs.

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Promoting Agriculture and Job Creation Through Exporting

Posted by Ari Matusiak on August 10, 2011 at 10:17 AM EDT

Air Tractor Inc., a 100 percent employee owned company, has used financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) to expand internationally.

Since 1972, Texas based Air Tractor Inc. has built and sold thousands of top-line agricultural airplanes that have helped foster agricultural development in America and abroad. With a business model focused on engaging the global marketplace, Air Tractor’s development and growth is a testament to how American companies can bring their quality products to the rest of the world.

A 100 percent employee owned company, Air Tractor has been able to expand to new international markets thanks in large part to financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank). Air Tractor has used Ex-Im Bank’s medium-term insurance for 15 years to export an estimated $50 million of its aircraft, primarily to small private-sector buyers in Argentina and Brazil. The company uses the Ex-Im Bank’s medium-term policies to provide supplier credits, which are loans to international buyers that the company originates and then sells to a commercial lender. About 25 planes are expected to be financed annually through this process.

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Educating Green Builders

Posted by Byron Bishop on August 9, 2011 at 1:40 PM EDT

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

On Tuesday July 19^th, I was honored with a Champions of Change award, allowing me to join a conversation between Executive Administration officials and various community leaders from the gulf coast region. Why where we selected to be honored? This incredible group pioneers from the gulf coast have all come up with ways to create jobs within our difficult economic times, while saving energy or by using green/clean energy products within their programs.

This new wave of innovation is fueling a major economic transformation within the United States of the past. The White House is supporting the passion of these honorees, driven by their home-grown ingenuity and entrepreneurship within our local communities. I am the Executive Director of a program called “Workforce.” Our program is focusing on changing the old ways of the construction industry across our nation and abroad.

Workforce provides low-income and special population groups of young adults in New Orleans with green construction skills. The programis helping to replenish the lost professional trades in the area, and it is contributing to the total rebuilding of the New Orleans community, infrastructure, and economy.

Workforce participants, or “team members,” are goal-oriented young adults who want to earn a living wage while learning the latest green construction technologies. The program primarily targets young adults between the ages of 21 and 28 who are living below the federal poverty level.

Workforce offers a wide range of training and educational development courses, from solar-powered homes and indoor air quality to green construction, purchasing, and contracting. Workforce integrates civic and community engagement into its education efforts and offers participants on-the-job training from industry leaders. The Workforce experience bolsters responsibility, pride, confidence, teamwork, and stewardship within the community. Workforce also trains its leaders and supervisors with formal labor management instructional courses. This prepares leaders to effectively manage teams from diverse neighborhoods and cultures.

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Green Team Starts Recycling Program on Campus

Posted by Julie Rexford on August 8, 2011 at 7:05 PM EDT

Ed. Note: Champions of Change is a weekly initiative to highlight Americans who are making an impact in their communities and helping our country rise to meet the many challenges of the 21st century.

On July 19^th, three students representing the Green Team of Harry Hurst Middle School, along with myself, were honored with the Champions for Change Award for our endeavors of starting a recycling program on our school campus. As a teacher, I was so humbled by the aspect of our students presenting our program to governmental and national business leaders. More importantly, they were able to interact and hear about initiatives that are being put in place around the Gulf Coast Region that will inevitably be a part of the fabric of our region. These conversations are rare in that they could influence their future decisions regarding both career and citizenship participation.

Students at Harry Hurst Middle School began to see a need for recycling because community recycling had been scaled back since Hurricane Katrina and proposed starting a program on campus. They convinced a local recycling business owner, Phoenix Recycling to help with getting the program started by providing free pick up for the first half of the school year. Students organized a “curbside collection” program in which teachers placed their materials outside of their classroom doors and students picked up the materials and placed them in the proper receptacles for pickup. In addition, members of the Green Team educated the student population along with the faculty and staff as to what materials could and could not be recycled. These efforts further lead to community awareness through participation in various local events. The team collected 16,000 gallons of recyclable material on campus which included paper, plastic, aluminum and cardboard.

With the help of Abundant Power and the U.S. Department of Energy, we are excited about continuing the program this school year, not only on our campus but as our members leave for high school, they will be able to continue the work that they started this past school year. As a teacher, I am amazed regularly by the willingness and creativity of our students to recognize a need and then propose a solution that works in such a positive manner.

Julie Rexford is a 7^th grade Life Science Teacher at Harry Hurst Middle School.

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