Stanley, NC | May 2023
Blum wins award for positive impact on local community
Blum Inc., a solutions-oriented manufacturer for cabinetry, is pleased to announce it accepted the Mayor’s International Community Award on May 23, 2023. This award honored foreign owned businesses in the Charlotte, North Carolina region for their contributions to philanthropy. Blum won the “Large Company” category.
Shannon Lafferty, Blum Inc. President and CEO, accepted the award on behalf of Blum. “At Blum we believe we have a responsibility to our employees, the environment, and to give back to the communities that sustain us,” Lafferty said.
The ceremony was held at the Booth Playhouse in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina.
Community efforts
Blum is a founding partner of Apprenticeship 2000, which is a four-year program that recruits high school students and pays them for on-the-job technical training, along with providing them courses at Central Piedmont Community College to obtain an Associate Degree in mechatronics. When students graduate, they have a guaranteed job at the company and four years of seniority.
The four-year program consists of more than 8,000 paid learning hours. There are 29 active students in the program with six graduating this summer. The first four graduates from the program, who graduated in 1999, are still with the company in various leadership roles today.
Aside from the apprenticeship program, Blum donates to several local charities. Some of those include the Carolina Thread Trail, Relay for Life and Keep Lincoln County Beautiful. Other charities include those focused on education and eliminating hunger.
Blum also encourages employees to give back to the community by participating in blood drives, picking up trash through Blum’s Adopt-A-Highway program and bringing in food to donate to food banks around the holidays.
“We are grateful for the nomination and to the ones who selected us for this honor,” Lafferty said. “Let us remember that philanthropy is not a one-time event or a gesture; it is a lifelong commitment. May we all work together to build a stronger community and a better tomorrow.”
Blum Inc. President and CEO, Shannon Lafferty, accepted the Mayor’s International Community Award for Blum’s contributions to philanthropy.
Blum, a Lincoln County manufacturing company, won the Mayor’s International Community Award in the “Large Company” category for its outstanding community efforts.
