ABI Tape Celebrates an Unusual Holiday for a Good Cause
At ABI Tape, one of our core company values is Social Responsibility. We do our best to be a responsible and caring member of the community in which we operate, and we try to give back when we can. Each year, ABI celebrates a bit of an unusual holiday for a good cause.
ABI Tape’s Vice President and General Manager, Michel Merkx, was born in the Netherlands, a constitutional monarchy. The prevalent color, orange, symbolizes national and royal pride and stems from the royal family name: The Family Nassau, House of Orange. On April 27th, the Dutch celebrate the birthday of King Willem Alexander on a holiday known as Koningsdag, or King’s Day. It is a national holiday in the Netherlands celebrated with street parties, music, parades, etc., with many, many people dressed up in orange.
In sharing a tradition from his home country with his work family, every year Merkx encourages ABI Tape employees, as well as our corporate office, subdivisions and sister companies, to wear orange on April 27th. For each person donning orange duds, Merkx generously donates $5 per person to Community Treatment Solutions (CTS), a non-profit organization which Merkx has been actively involved in since 2013. Now part of Legacy Treatment, CTS is an organization dedicated to providing services to children and youth who have been traumatized by abuse and neglect, and to families who need new tools and resources to parent.
This year’s Dare to Wear Orange Day was a rousing success with 202 people throughout the ABI family dressed in orange – the most participants an ABI Orange Day has seen to date, totaling $1,025. Another $715 in contributions came from generous employees and made for a total donation of $1,740 to CTS – a record we hope to beat next year!
