Catalyst Award: Heartland Coca-Cola Bottling Company

For the folks at Heartland Coca-Cola. It started with my dad and his mission and the culture that we are at Heartland, which is taking care of our people and they'll take care of you.

I love that about Heartland Coca-Cola. I also love the fact that they are so committed to our organization and to our people. People are important to them, and we know that, and we see that that's really important at our organization as well.

We were able to partner with Heartland Coca-Cola, and we were able to say for our employees who would like to get a GED, we're going to provide you that opportunity, and you're not going to have to take time off of work, and you're not going to have to do it on your own, and you don't have to make a commitment back to us, other than to get through the program,

The ability for them to look at and help us with GED. That's something that was very near and dear to Junior's heart. He gave this speech last year at the graduation. I don't think there was a dry in the house.

You don't realize graduates here, the impact that you are going to have on not just yourselves, but your family members and everyone that looks at you by what you've accomplished here today.

Keep in mind, this is not hundreds of people graduating. This was less than 10 people graduating. He got up there and without a note, he gave this heartfelt, compassionate address to our graduates, and he was speaking directly to them.

We are more than overjoyed to be a part of this program. Why? Because it changes lives, and it makes not just your life better, but it makes, as I said, that ripple effect, but it makes our country better, and we are living in a time when we need all the better we can get. Congratulations again, and thank you.

Certainly the GED program was a passion of Junior Bridgeman and the ability to bring value to our employees. And the folks that Junior found to be of high interest was a perfect fit between Heartland Coca-Cola and The University of Kansas Health System.

We love the fact that you have the opportunity to get your GED, advance your career, make a difference. And so these things resonated with us when we first heard about it. And I mean, how could you not participate and sponsor a system like that?

Heartland Coca-Cola has been a catalyst in our organization in a number of different ways, certainly the GED program, they serve as a catalyst for us to get that program going and to expand that program.

But Heartland Coca-Cola has done so much more for us. They really worked hard to learn our business, to learn our specific needs, to make sure that they had in their warehouse what we needed for our patients all the time. But it's not just what happens inside our building. Heartland Coca-Cola has become a regular at our annual tulip-bulb-pulling event. Every year. We plant 10s of 1000s of tulip bulbs all across our campus, and every one of them has to be pulled out every year, and we always seek volunteers to do that. And Heartland Coca-Cola sends a small army of folks.

The support they give us is, I think, best in class. They sit down with us every year. They look at our priorities as a health system, organization. Their priorities are education and supporting the community that they live, work and play.

They are creative in their thinking. They're creative in their support. It allows us to do things that we more than likely wouldn't be able to do on our own, but it still fits within the context of a much larger goal of ours, which is to be the best at what we do.

They've supported us philanthropically. They support a variety of different initiatives that are important to the health system. It's not just writing a check, but when they invest their time in something you know that has importance and meaning to them,

They obviously care about the product that they're selling, but they also care about who they're selling it to, and that's the differentiator, anything that helps create opportunities for other individuals. I mean, we are always blessed and want to be a part of that. So to be named and to be honored in that space means a lot to me.