Business benefits

By Jill Lafferty

Quantifying the benefits businesses receive for their community involvement is tricky, but industry veterans can offer specific examples.

Pat Hayes, founder and CEO of Fabric Images Inc., Elgin, Ill., was frustrated with a lack of high speed Internet options he needed for his business. He credits his contributions to economic development in the Elgin region, and the relationships he’s fostered, for being able to get a quick response from the city: a plan for every major industrial park in Elgin to have fiber optic Internet access.

TCT&A Industries CEO Industries’ Kevin Yonce, Urbana, Ill., serves on the board of directors of his local Community Health Improvement organization. The group’s current initiative—a dental clinic for children and adults who wouldn’t otherwise have access to dental care—resulted from a poll of doctors that revealed that people who lacked affordable options for dental care were clogging up the local hospital’s emergency room for treatment of abscesses and other tooth problems. “I have a lot of employees who use that same facility for their health care, so by having affordable dental care accessible in our community, it helps our business lower absentee rates,” Yonce says.

Jill C. Lafferty is editor of InTents magazine.