Ewald Dörken AG launched the WE.YOU.HERE initiative to support the local economy of Herdecke and Hagen during the Coronavirus pandemic.
To support local businesses in Herdeke and Hagen, where the Dörken Group is located, the company provided all its employees with 1,000 Euros to spend in local restaurants and shops. The company stated that this is a way as well to thank all employees who have shown commitment to their company during the Corona crisis, even though they had to make some significant cutbacks in their living environment or to suffer loss of income due to short-working.
Due to the impossibility to present the initiative at a classic works assembly, the WE.YOU.HERE campaign, was revealed in the temporary Hagen drive-in movies on Otto-Ackermann-Platz. The company therefore invited as many employees as the site could accommodate under the current conditions to an evening at the movies in their cars; everyone else was able to join in from home and follow the event via livestream.
The movie evening started with a poetry slam from the backstage living room of the German rapper Norman Sinn, which perfectly captured the atmosphere of Corona times, followed by the projection of the movie „Der Junge muss an die frische Luft".
WE.YOU.HERE: How the campaign came to life
"The Corona virus has messed with all of our lives. Both professionally and privately. Markets, people and companies have to deal with problems never experienced before. Our company has also been affected by the crisis and we demanded a lot from our employees. But it is exactly in this exceptional situation that we have experienced: We can rely on our employees. But also, on our customers and our shareholders. And that is why we have been extremely lucky - despite all the problems. A very special thank you for that. We all have had to overcome many unexpected problems in the recent weeks. We have distanced ourselves from each other and yet we have developed a coherence that is exceptionally - even for Dörken standards. We therefore wanted to take our lived solidarity to the outside world and help our local economy in Herdecke and Hagen to get going again. We need a successful restart of trade, small shops and catering. So that cultural diversity as we know and love it, is preserved and enriches our lives in the future", said member of Dörken board Thorsten Koch, addressing the employees to explain the reasoning behind the project.
The company also thanked the city of Herdecke and the city of Hagen for their support in organizing the campaign.
The major of Herdecke, Katja Strauss-Köster and senior mayor Erik O. Schulz expressed their thanks for the campaign in their respective welcome addresses and on behalf of the local companies and service providers. The Dörken staff expressed their approval and joy on site with a honking concert and on the net with many enthusiastic chat contributions.