Doing the Right Thing for Puerto Rico

Ray Kerins, Senior Vice President, Communications, Government Relations and Policy, Bayer U.S.

“The children in Puerto Rico aren’t expecting much for the holidays this year. The toy stores are empty and new items aren’t being shipped.” That’s what one of our employees from the hurricane ravaged Puerto Rico office reported in early December.

As the father of three young children, it was one of those statements that made my eyes well up, take pause and think, “We have to do something about this. We can’t let the children of our employees, who have been through so much, wake up Christmas morning to no presents.”

So, our U.S. President of Bayer, Phil Blake, and I pulled a small team together and we came up with an idea just crazy enough to work. We decided, a little bit reluctantly, to do a two-day only donation drive at several of our U.S. offices and personally fly down to the island to deliver them. I say reluctantly not because we didn’t want to, but because we already had multiple toy drives underway, including the annual Marine Corps Toys for Tots drive, so this special collection was another “ask” of an already very generous group of employees.

What happened next was absolutely incredible. Bayer employees did exactly what they have done time after time — they gave and gave and gave. We received an outpouring of gifts, toys by the hundreds, sheets and towels (which we also found out were needed) and even some gift cards. Employees only had four days’ notice, and somehow in the hustle of the holidays they found time to come through in a big way.

The night before our departure the team packed 14 large boxes of gifts and the next morning as we were loading the plane, I thought to myself, “We’re going to need a bigger plane.” With the cargo hull filled to capacity, we began emptying the contents onto the seats; puzzles, stuffed animals, nerf guns, board games and more filled all but two seats on the plane for our three and a half hour journey.

Upon arrival at the airport, it was clear that the island had made some strong progress, but still much was to be done. The very first sign of that was the pile of mangled planes on the runway.

We quickly loaded a van and an oversized SUV for the short trip to the local hotel where we would meet our colleagues.

Phil and I were greeted by Nydia Acevedo, the Senior Bayer Representative of Puerto Rico, and the partner that helped arrange for this important event to take place. Later on Nydia introduced us to the team and we grabbed our seats at very long table for a beautiful traditional Puerto Rican lunch, complete with a band and dancing. Phil offered a few words thanking the employees for their courage, tenacity, patience and tremendous efforts in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, all while keeping operations going and serving customers.

I truly wish that all of our Bayer employees who donated these gifts of love from one part of our Bayer family to another could have experienced the sheer outpouring of thankfulness. What a great example of lifting each other up during the holiday season and a time of need. I want to thank everyone that participated. I’m so proud of our entire Bayer family and wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year.