Western Plains Business Solutions employees glad to help with raking leaves, other projects at Riverside Discovery Center zoo in Scottsbluff – on paid time
JEFF FIELDER Editor
SCOTTSBLUFF – Kevin Thompson of Gering has been working at Western Plains Business Solutions in Scottsbluff for about a year.
He remembers the first time his boss, Gene Batt, assigned him a task that didn’t have anything to do with work at Western Plains Business Solutions. Thompson and another co-worker were asked if they would go rake leaves at the Riverside Discovery Center zoo in Scottsbluff.
“I was a little stunned at first,” Thompson said. “I wasn’t expecting that, but we were a little slow at the office that afternoon, so it was a good way to help somebody out.”
Batt began sending his employees, while still on the clock, to help at the zoo about a year and a half ago. He started doing it to help his employees get their full number of hours during the week while also supporting a zoo that he believes is a very valuable asset to the community.
“The alternative was to send them home during the slower times, but if we did that, they would lose hours and money,” Batt said. “We asked them if they wanted to go help out at the zoo because then they’ll still get paid while doing some important work there.”
Since he began working at Western Plains Business Solutions last April, Thompson estimates that he’s spent about 40 to 50 hours helping at the zoo while being paid by Western Plains Business Solutions. He’s not the only employee who’s helped at the zoo. Patty Buxbaum, Vincent Buxbaum, Harold Stewart, Kevin Kenney, Kene Jefferson, and Batt have all spent time helping at the zoo in some fashion. Altogether, Western Plains Business Solutions employees have spent about 200 hours doing volunteer work at the zoo in the last year.
Batt said he appreciates his employees being willing to help at the zoo.
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