Zimmer Biomet Foundation encourages employees to give back

 

WARSAW, Ind. -- Zimmer Biomet, based out of Warsaw, manufactures medical devices that aim to improve people's lives. Last year, the company started the Zimmer Biomet Foundation with that same goal in mind, by giving back to the community. 

The Foundation has donated $580,000 to charities in Indiana, supporting the United Way of Kosciusko county, the Healthy Communities Coalition and the Kosciusko County YMCA, and donated $150,000 to Warsaw Community Schools to support STEM education. 

The Foundation also worked to support Zimmer Biomet employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a relief fund to help those impacted by the Coronavirus. 

According to Zimmer Biomet CEO Bryan Hanson "We want to be an organization, we want to be a team, we want to be a family that gives back to those in need. And that was kind of the genesis for the Foundation. We wanted to create that mechanism that would allow us to give back to those in need and that’s why we created it.

Zimmer Biomet also encourages their employees to find ways to give back.

"We want to make sure people are engaged in this," said Hanson. "We don’t want to just do it just through the Foundation; we want our team members to get engaged and give back as well.”

To help achieve this, the Zimmer Biomet Foundation created a giving center, where employees have the opportunity to choose to donate either money or their time to a charity they wanted to support. Zimmer Biomet employees donated to 430 different charities, and raised $176,000 for Indiana charities alone, supporting the United Way of Kosciusko and Whitley counties, as well as Kosciusko County Combined Community Services. The Zimmer Biomet Foundation also matched any employee donation up to $500 annually. 

Zimmer Biomet employees also managed to log 2,650 community service hours this year-- over half of that time in the Warsaw area. 

Hallie Brinkerhuff, the Director of Research and Development at Zimmer Biomet-- where she has worked for over twenty years, says she's proud to know that the company she works for is making a difference. 

She said “Not only are we working towards improving mobility and alleviating pain through the work we’re doing every day, but as an organization, we’re working to try and make our communities better through volunteerism as well as things like the Zimmer Biomet Foundation.”

Hanson hopes the Foundation will continue to raise money and make impacts in 2022.