Making friends with new neighbors, AWS awards grants to 31 local organizations

 

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- Amazon Web Services (AWS) leaders were in South Bend Thursday, hosting representatives from 31 local organizations all getting grant funds from the Amazon St. Joseph County Community Fund.

"We don't know the community yet," said Sarah Georgiades, AWS InCommunities team head for the Americas. "This allows us to really make it a 'we're here, we're listening, we want to hear from you.'"

As AWS builds an $11 billion data center in New Carlisle, leaders are trying to make friends with their new neighbors.

"This is the largest economic development investment in the State of Indiana ever. So, they are doing what I feel like should be done, which is investing in the community where they will be sitting for the next however long, however many decades, ahead of us," said Kate Lee, executive director of education and workforce for the South Bend Regional Chamber.

The grant funds dispersed among 31 local organizations, largely nonprofits, range from $1,000 to $10,000, part of the $250,000 Amazon St. Joseph County Community Fund.

"We have a leadership principle called 'customer obsession,'" Georgiades said. "But in our team, and when we come into new communities, we change that up to be community obsessed."

Among the recipients is the New Carlisle Fire Department.

Fire Chief Joshua Schweizer said the department has developed a very good working relationship with the company, despite some reluctance from town residents to welcome more industrial development in their rural community.

"I don't think that we could ask for a better partner," Schweizer said. "The apprehension or the confusion is people don't know what a data center is. They look at a company like Amazon coming into the community, and they worry how that's going to impact."

And it will have a massive impact, promising transformational change in the region.

"The jobs are vast," Lee said. "They've hired a lot of people here locally already.... [and] Bringing talent in. It's been great economically for our hotels. I mean, we have a lot of people coming from different places to do this work."

The New Carlisle Fire Department is using its grant funds to install public AEDs in New Carlisle.

"This is the first time, especially in our community, where I've seen something like this happen," Schweizer said.

As data centers, which are power and water-intensive, emerge across the Midwest and beyond, AWS deploys their InCommunities teams to build positive relationships in the communities now home to this infrastructure.

"We want to hear from you about how we can be a good community member," Georgiades said. "Your community is your community, and we want to be a part of it in the most authentic way possible."

ABC57 is working to learn when AWS projects operations to start. Meanwhile, the company is actively hiring.