A plaque made by construction students at San Marcos High School was presented to members of our Fontana distribution center to thank them for their product donations through the Warrior Village Project. The plaque was delivered during a visit from senior leadership. Pictured left to right are: Maria Kaiser-McNiel, senior executive assistant to Keith O’Rear and Denise Merle (based at our Seattle HQ); Erin Thatcher, distribution finance and planning (based at our Seattle HQ); Arturo Alcaraz, Fontana forklift operator; Ross Theilen, vice president of Distribution; Esteban “Steve” Garcia, Fontana operations supervisor; Bryan Horng, Fontana site operations manager; Chris Geldert, construction teacher at San Marcos High School; and Keith O’Rear, senior vice president of Wood Products.
In 2019 the Warrior Village Project, a nonprofit based in Southern California, reached out to our Giving Fund team hoping to get a one-time donation of building materials. The organization planned to use the materials to support its burgeoning program to teach San Diego-area high school students about construction trades through building affordable housing for unhoused veterans.
What they got was even better. At the suggestion of our Giving Fund team, Warrior Village submitted an online grant application and received a $5,000 grant in 2019 and a $4,000 grant in 2020. Warrior Village volunteer Mark Pilcher was also introduced to Lana Bru, finance and planning manager for our Southern California distribution area and a member of our local Giving Fund Advisory Committee.
Our Fontana distribution center had some discontinued products — quality materials that were no longer being sold due to updates such as manufacturer color changes — on the books. Lana was hoping to donate them to a good home, and Mark readily agreed to take them. Their partnership is now nearly three years strong.
“I admit that my pulse picks up a beat now when I see a message from Lana, because it usually means she has some materials for us,” Mark says.
A ribbon cutting ceremony for the first house built by San Marcos High School students and donated to Wounded Warrior Homes in Visa. It was built with siding, house wrap, moulding and decking material donated by our distribution centers and with funding support from a Giving Fund grant.
FROM DISCONTINUED TO DEVELOPED
Since that first connection, our Southern California distribution centers have donated siding, decking, house wrap, deck railing and more to the Warrior Village Project. Mark and his team distribute the materials to shop and woodworking classes for juniors and seniors at San Marcos, Poway and Rancho Buena Vista High Schools. Student building projects have included homes for veterans, an annex building at Poway High School, storage sheds, furniture, shelves, benches and more, allowing them to gain real-world woodworking experience.
“Thanks to our product donations to the Warrior Village Project, discontinued building materials now support our local schools and communities,” Lana says. “It’s a fantastic, sustainable way to move discontinued product that we can no longer sell — and we’re getting great exposure with these high school students. Developing their carpentry skills could give them an interest in our industry and potentially encourage them to join our workforce at some point.”
An annex building at Poway High School that now houses their woodworking program. The building was built by students, using some of our donated materials.
EXPEDITING THE DONATION PROCESS
While donating material may sound like an easy win, it’s not quite as simple as saying ‘yes.’ There’s a lot of coordination required in terms of paperwork, logistics, labor and communications to ensure the donations are appropriately tracked and safely delivered.
“We work closely with Warrior Village Project and the schools to determine when our carrier can make deliveries of materials to each school and to make sure school staff can safely handle the material while unloading the trucks,” Lana says.
Poway students also built Adirondack chairs, end tables and coffee tables from our donated decking. The furniture is being sold in a fundraiser for the school woodworking program.
Several Southern California Distribution team members help with the Warrior Village Project donations, including Tim Phipps, inside sales representative in Santa Clarita; Steve Garcia, operations supervisor at Fontana; and Arturo Alcaraz, forklift operator at Fontana who picks and packages the products in a way that’s manageable for the schools. For example, a recent shipment of decking materials had to be packaged in smaller packs for unloading at the high schools since their forklifts had limited capacity.
“Weyerhaeuser gave us so much decking material we were able to share it with other schools, and they're using it for a variety of projects,” Mark says. “A teacher from Poway High School told me the decking material saved his program because they didn’t have funds to buy material for the remainder of the school year. Weyerhaeuser’s donated material kept his kids working and learning.”
Members of our Fontana day crew with the plaque from San Marcos High School.
BENEFITTING STUDENTS AND VETERANS
The donation effort means something different to everyone.
“We can help our kids learn trades while building truly affordable housing for veterans,” Mark says. “We know each donation requires organization, paperwork and physical labor to get the materials delivered. I can’t say thank you enough to everyone at Weyerhaeuser who has been involved.”
Being part of providing support for an organization that assists veterans is especially important to Steve in Fontana.
“We’re able to provide something of value for the high school programs, and the kids building these houses get to learn about a trade,” Steve says. “But most important to me is getting to help veterans who’ve served our country. I think any time we have an opportunity to give back to the people who’ve spent part of their life serving, we should.”
The partnership has become a sense of pride for many. In a note to his fellow sales staff, Tim says: “Our ability to affect so many people’s lives in a positive manner makes me very proud to work for Weyerhaeuser, and proud to work with fellow associates who value our ability to do this.”
Members of our Fontana night crew with the plaque.
CONNECTING WITH COMMUNITIES
By establishing the donation process, the Southern California team hopes they’ve paved the way for other distribution centers.
“Our Distribution business has done plenty of one-off donations, but this ongoing collective effort has been different,” Lana says. “It opens the door for ongoing donations to other organizations, like Habitat for Humanity. When we’ve got quality products we can’t sell, we want to find a good home for them. There’s so much opportunity; we just need to look and see what’s going on locally and find ways to connect our local communities with what we do as a company.”
