The Oregonian
written by Brent Hunsberger
"For us, it's not really a political or marketing statement. It's essentially the right thing to do for a group of Oregonians who sacrifice more on a daily basis than we do."
Tim Leahy, Calbag Metal's buying and marketing director
From time to time, the conveyor belt on the aluminum recycling machine at Calbag Metals Co. gets stuck. When it does, employee Ziggy Ajanovic bypasses it by firing up a forklift, loading a bucketful of glinting aluminum shavings and dumping them directly into the compressor's mouth.
Each time he does, he's not only helping his employer's bottom line, but he's also contributing to the education of Oregon's civilian military.
Every quarter of this year, Calbag Metals has matched half of the productivity bonus earned by Ajanovic and 35 colleagues and donated that amount to a scholarship fund for Oregon National Guard members and families.
The longtime Portland company is one of more than a dozen Oregon businesses that military officials say have stepped up over the past five years and donated money, goods or time to support Oregon National Guard troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"For us, it's not really a political or marketing statement," said Tim Leahy, the company's buying and marketing director. "It's essentially the right thing to do for a group of Oregonians who sacrifice more on a daily basis than we do."
The freebies have come in all forms, shapes and sizes from a variety of companies.
In May, Rose City Radio Corp., owner of KXL Radio, hosted its third annual Golfing for the Guard tournament, which raises money for the Guard's scholarship fund, called the Charitable Education Fund.
In August, Rogue Ales bottled 160 cases of its Juniper Ale in commemorative labels and gave one bottle each to 300 members of the Guard's 41st Brigade Combat Team. The beer, also sold by the case at the unit's demobilization ceremony in Tigard, was the Portland craft brewery's sixth special bottling honoring an Oregon Guard unit.
Military officials still marvel at Mo's Restaurants chowder feed in February 2006 for family members of that same combat team before it deployed to Afghanistan.
The event in Salem fed 3,000 people and used up 10 pots of chowder, which was poured in bread bowls and served on a lined Mo's flying disc. Mo's rented 15 nearby hotel rooms to staff the event, said Gabrielle McEntee-Wilson, the restaurant chain's vice president of public relations.
"It's just a way for us to say, 'Thank you for doing a job that a lot of us can't do or won't do,' " said McEntee-Wilson, whose mother owns a stake in the chain of six coastal restaurants."These are just regular people with families and jobs and lives. They uproot themselves and they leave. It just kind of hit me. I don't know that I could do that."
Military officials and supporters say some of the donations help families, who've lost a breadwinner, make ends meet.
The donations also boost troop morale. Oregon National Guard spokeswoman Kay Fristad said members have appreciated Portland-based Boyd Coffee Co.'s donation of coffee and brewing supplies because, she said, "Our soldiers are not into chai tea."
Products that troops don't normally receive go a long way to generating good will, said Bob Elliott, state executive director of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, a federal organization that helps members and their employers deal with issues arising from military service.
"We can't give beer away," Elliott explained. "(Rogue) went above and beyond and did something we can't do."
What's more, Elliott added, "It's good beer. I'll hold on to mine for special parties and bring it out for guests. I bought five cases."
Donated items aren't always easy for employers to come by. Rogue needs two to three weeks to turn around a special bottling, and the case prices don't cover costs, brewery co-owner Jack Joyce said.
"It's not like 'Laverne & Shirley,' " said Rogue employee Scott Gallagher of the 1970s TV comedy about two Milwaukee brewery workers. "We're a small microbrewery. It's a lot of work."
All six Rogue bottlings for the Guard featured unique labels designed by the Guard itself, along with names commemorating each mission such as "Engineer Ale" and "Phoenix Gold."
Calbag's donations, which started this year, total $68,342 at the end of its third quarter. The company expects to contribute at least $200,000 over its two-year commitment to the scholarship fund.
At Calbag, Ajanovic operates a pucking machine, which compresses spent aluminum borings --waste generated at Boeing's airplane manufacturing in Gresham --into aluminum pucks, or compressed metal discs, for resale and reuse.
"I have to be here to make sure it's going all the time," said Ajanovic, a 19-year employee at Calbag.
It makes a difference in his pay, too. Calbag figures its productivity bonus based on pounds of metals recycled per staff hour. Nearly one-quarter of an employee's pay comes in the form of a bonus, which equates to about $3 to $3.50 an hour, Leahy said.
Calbag hasn't had an employee called to serve in the Guard, but enough workers internally recognized the sacrifice to support the idea,Calbag President Warren Rosenfeld said.
"It was really sort of this sense that there are a small number of Oregonians who are really shouldering the whole burden, and they're going to come back after serving and be Oregonians again," Rosenfeld said. "It's about Oregonians returning and being Oregonians."
Brent Hunsberger: 503-221-8359; brenthunsberger@news.oregonian.com