2014 Pillar Award for Community Service, Northeast Ohio
John Kahl
CEO
ShurTech Brands LLC
www.shurtech.com
Integrating Product into Service
ShurTech Brands LLC is an active member of the Avon and Cleveland communities. The company manufactures adhesive tapes, such as Duck® tape, and has devised several unique programs that incorporate its products into charitable endeavors.
Its most memorable example is its Stuck at Prom® Scholarship Contest. Since 2001, ShurTech has sponsored this challenge in which high school students in the U.S. and Canada create unique duct tape prom dresses and suits. Each member of the first place couple receives a $10,000 scholarship for college, while the school hosting the prom receives a cash prize of $5,000. Over the past 14 years, more than 6,500 students have participated and the company has awarded more than $300,000 to students and their schools.
ShurTech’s Love for the Lunchroom project incorporated its FrogTape® brand painter’s tape in a $10,000 school cafeteria makeover for Benjamin Franklin Elementary in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
The company also is hands-on with students’ education. For more than 15 years, employees have volunteered in the classrooms of local schools through Junior Achievement.
In recent years, ShurTech has assisted more than 200 nonprofit organizations annually. A large portion of these financial donations to local organizations is coordinated through its Helping Hands program. Employees take charge by initiating internal fundraising projects and determine which organizations to support. Past fundraising activities include dress down Fridays, raffles, coffee/bake sales, cornhole tournaments and hoops competitions. The success of this employee-driven program is apparent — Helping Hands raised thousands of dollars last year.
