Community Involvement

Business Car team turns teambuilding exercise into community service

Fourteen members of the Business Car team, based in Topeka, Kan., turned a teambuilding exercise into community service through a United Way Day of Caring event at an organic vegetable production farm.

The Business Car team spent an afternoon at the Gibbs Road Farm, a certified organic vegetable production farm in southern Wyandotte County, just outside Kansas City. The farm is Cultivate Kansas City's model and demonstration farm and participates in the Growing Growers program, hosting several apprentices throughout the year. The farm experiments with high tunnel, raised bed and no-till production, and offers technical assistance to other growers.

"This was a great teambuilding exercise because it took everyone out of their normal element… where everyone had the same level of experience," said Bill Whiteman, manager of Business Car Operations. "We spent the previous day in class, working on relationship and communication skills, and then used the farm-work as an opportunity for each team member to utilize and demonstrate an understanding of the subject. This experience will pay dividends in a stronger team and community."

The teams of chefs and servers trimmed back an herb garden, mulched an installed a rock border. Team members also dug trenches to control drainage, preventing soil erosion and prepared beds for spring planting.

Diane Hentges, director of the Volunteer Center/RSVP of the United Way of Wyandotte County, expressed appreciation for the Business Car team's assistance.

"The farm is now ready to begin spring planting and training. That wouldn't have been possible without the BNSF team," Hentges said.

Ami Freeburg, community outreach coordinator for Cultivate Kansas City, said the team's contributions significantly prepared the farm for spring. "Mid-February is an important time for a farm. It is time for spring cleanup and getting ready to plant. The BNSF volunteers helped with some big, heavy duty projects: mulching beds to get ready for planting, digging a trench to redirect irrigation for sustainable water management, moving rocks to clean up herb beds around the building, among other projects. This work helped get Cultivate Kansas City's Gibbs Road Farm off to a great start and ready to grow food for our city."