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Local Company Up for Regional Award

March 28, 2003

A local company has been recognized for its generosity with a nomination for a regional award. The Robert Bosch Tool Corporation, formerly Vermont American, has been named a finalist in the Mayor’s International Community Awards competition. “We are humbled to be picked out of the number of organizations that there are in this region,” said Sherry Singleton, the company’s director of human resources. The annual award honors internationally-owned companies’ philanthropic giving and non-profit community support within the 16 county Charlotte region. The Robert Bosch Tool Corporation’s headquarters is located in Germany. The company has been extremely active in supporting the Lincoln County community, since it moved her in 1960. It has sponsored the Free Enterprise Scholarship – given to a local high school senior – for more than 15 years, and is the largest contributor to the Rotary’s annual auction. The company also supports the March of Dimes, United Way, the American Red Cross, Wal-Mart’s Children’s Network, Hospice, Christina Ministries and the Dogwood School of the Blind, among other charities. In recent years, the tool company has made donations to the Lincoln County YMCA, the East Lincoln Branch Library, Lincoln County Schools, the Lincoln Arts Council, the Lincoln Cultural Center and the Lincoln Theater Guild. The company’s widespread philanthropy is in keeping with its parent company’s ideals – Bosch is based on a charitable foundation, established in Germany in the late 1800s. Entrenching itself as a charitable presence within the community is as important to the company as it is to Lincoln County. “Giving is like farming,” Singleton said. “If you don’t nurture the soil that you’re farming, you won’t get anything back.” And thanks to the efforts of area businesses like Robert Bosch, the field that grows Lincoln County’s business community is far more harvestable, according to Barry Matherly, Lincoln Economic Development Association executive director. “Companies like Vermont American (Robert Bosch Tool Corporation) have set a standard in this community,” Matherly said. “If the people in your community have a positive view of the businesses serving them, it makes business development a lot easier.” Regional recognition through competitions like MICA also helps bring long-overdue attention to the positive aspects of Lincoln County’s business climate, Matherly said. The tool company’s benevolence is the result of the selfless employees, Singleton said. “I have never been as involved with the community as I am here,” she said. “These are the most generous people I have ever worked with.” The Robert Bosch Tool Corporation came to Lincoln County in 1960 as the Threadit Division of American Saw & Tool. In 1960 the name changed to Vermont American. Now part of the Bosch family, the company maintains two Lincoln County facilities – the Distribution Center on Indian Creek Road and the Lincolnton Manufacturing Division on the Maiden Highway. The manufacturing division’s major products include threading tools, router tables, hole saws and various tool accessories. The Robert Bosch Tool Corporation employs approximately 5,000 nationwide, 500 in Lincoln County alone.