GE Appliances' Blue Wave comes to life in Camden

Nov 19th 2021

GEA Communications

As part of the United Way’s recent Day of Caring, our Camden, S.C., team adopted New Day on Mill, which provides transitional housing to women and their children who are experiencing homelessness.

New Day also assists residents through life skill classes, counseling, guidance, and other resources to help their residents rise out of homelessness and regain their independence and protection.

“We felt GEA Camden could help give hope by doing some minor tasks to help and show we care,” said Teresa Justice, senior human resources business partner at Camden. “Everyone hits a rough patch in life and some just need to know that people do care and there is hope. We tried to demonstrate this by giving the cottages, office and grounds a fresh, clean look and feel. Something the residents can enjoy and be proud of.”

Twenty-two hourly and salary volunteers came together to do just that. They worked tirelessly to power wash the cottages and walkways, trim the shrubberies, mulch, and haul away debris and fallen tree limbs.

Inside, they repaired doors, hung blinds and medicine cabinets, installed a new water heater in the laundry room and weather proofed the cottages in advance of cooler weather.

According to Harriet Reid, the director of New Day, case managers were in tears when they saw the transformation and residents were overwhelmed.

“We couldn’t believe this group and company came in with their own supplies and went to work just to make us feel cared for with nothing in return," Reid said. "This made the case workers and residents feel proud of their facility.”

GEA Camden’s support to New Day on Mill is just the latest effort made by employees as part of the company’s Blue Wave initiative.

The initiative launched in our hometown of Louisville in October with hundreds of GEA employees coming together to lead service projects for schools, neighborhoods and nonprofits across the city.

Over the next year, we’ll be making significant investments in more than two dozen local agencies and programs in Louisville that help advance equity and inclusion, create educational opportunities and strengthen the community.