Amelia Island assisted living residents receive a heart-warming surprise

Toyota Material Handling North America is headquartered in Columbus, Ind., but recently had an impact on residents of Fernandina Beach. Each year, 40 executives travel to an off-site location for a leadership forum and choose a different city to visit each time, giving back to that community while they are there.

Shelley Bramlett is the executive assistant to Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota Material Handling North America, and is in charge of choosing locations and organizations to support each year. When she started her search, she knew Fernandina Beach and the Savannah Grand of Amelia Island were special.

“‘Go and see with your own eyes’ is what I do. It’s one of the best parts of my job, finding and working with organizations to help as a kickoff to our meeting. I visited Savannah Grand and knew it would be a great fit for our team,” said Bramlett.

Genchi Genbutsu, or in English means “go and see for yourself,” is a Toyota company principle. The best way to make sure a production line is working at maximum efficiency is to go and see it for yourself. This is the idea behind Genchi Genbutsu, part of the Toyota Production System.

“As part of our off-site meetings, we choose a different city twice a year. Part of my job is to find a hotel, charity event, restaurant, etc. a year in advance,” continued Bramlett. “ When we landed on Amelia Island for our Leadership Forum, I visited Savannah Grand and knew it would be a great fit for our team.”

The Toyota executives arrived at Savannah Grand via bus and were greeted warmly by the residents who were dressed in a fun Mardi Gras theme, holding signs and cheering.

The executives split up into groups and landscaped the entire front entrance as well as renovated an indoor/outdoor atrium area. They painted the atrium an ocean blue color and purchased and put together a room full of furniture, planted some beautiful flowers in big pots, painted a shuffleboard court on the concrete, put together an indoor grill and brought in a karaoke machine. They also painted a room that Savannah Grand residents use as their movie theater and brought in snacks as well as a big popcorn maker.

“During each off-site meeting with the Toyota Material Handling North America executives, we always strive to live out the Toyota value of being a good corporate citizen. These are busy meetings, but it’s important that we find time to give back to the local community. When we participate in these volunteer activities, our team is impacted just as positively as the community that we get to interact with,” said Brett Wood, president and CEO of Toyota

While visiting, the group of executives took time to socialize with the staff and residents of Savannah Grand.

“Another really special part of the day was our executive team interacting with the residents. At the end of the day, we enjoyed some music and bakery items from Nana Teresa’s and then played cornhole with the residents,” said Bramlett. “It was fun to see them walk into a totally revitalized area. The space was really underutilized, and now they have comfortable seating, beautiful plants, games, flowers and bright walls to enjoy.”

The residents and staff of Savannah Grand couldn’t be happier about the makeover and new amenities. Britny Walker, the executive director of Savannah Grand of Amelia, could hardly believe it was really happening.

“I received a call from Shelley Bramlett from Toyota Material Handling NA, stating twice a year around 30-40 members of the executive team like to gather together and help the community they are staying in. This time, they chose assisted living,” said Walker. “To be honest, at first, I was in disbelief and thought it was a scam. My team and I spent about an hour researching the company and found out it was indeed real!”

The staff and residents are still in disbelief at the work the men and women of Toyota Material Handling accomplished in their short visit on Amelia Island.

“They will never truly know the impact they have made on Savannah Grand of Amelia Island. There are not enough thank-yous to be said to the TMH Team,” said Walker.

Toyota Material Handling North America also presented Savannah Grand with a $5,000 check to use for any needs they had.

“We hear they may purchase a new oven or some new seating for their movie theater,” said Brumlett.

Visit ToyotaForklift.com for more information about Toyota Material Handling North America.

To learn more about Savannah Grand of Amelia Island, visit https://www.slm.net/fl/fernandina-beach/savannah-grand-of-amelia-island.