San Marcos-Based Irrigation Company Gives Their Local Community More Than Sprinklers

Giving something back to the community. It sounds noble, and honorable, and the politically correct thing to do.

It can also seem like a hassle when it’s time, sweat and toil that are put on the line. Many people express a desire to do something on behalf of others, but only a portion actually go ahead and do the work.

At Hunter Industries, a San Marcos-based manufacturer of landscape irrigation products and one of the North County city’s largest employers, giving something back to the community is a corporate commitment. And employees from the highest to the lowest ranks within the company join together to participate.

Each year, the company participates in a countywide program known as Hands On San Diego. This fall will mark the 13th year of Hands On San Diego, where more than 5,000 volunteers give their time and effort on behalf of more than 300 projects for local non-profit groups. In 2003, Hunter’s manpower for the program was directed at TERI, a North County organization that specializes in providing housing and programs for mentally challenged adults.

On behalf of TERI, Hunter donated landscape irrigation materials, plus the labor and time necessary to install them, at one of the single-family homes that the organization owns in Vista.

Hunter Involved for More than Just a Day

The TERI project involved more than simply installing a couple of sprinkler heads, however. A Hunter project manager drew up the plans for the installation, then a team of Hunter employees went out to the site and prepped it in advance of the large company turnout. The team installed a new mainline for the water and then marked out on the property where all of the irrigation components would need to go.

The project manager then had to arrange for all the products that would be needed at the site. The basic irrigation components—sprinklers, controllers, valves—were donated by Hunter…but someone had to gather all that together, package it, and transport it to the site. Other necessary items, including foot after foot of pipe, needed to be secured from Hunter distributors, which meant a little begging to a third party to provide a donation.

Thus, a substantial amount of man-hours were already invested towards the project…even before the dozens of Hunter employees showed up at the house early one Saturday morning to dig trenches, lay pipe, install irrigation components, and cover everything up with soil.

That Saturday morning saw Hunter employees from all over the region—as far away as Temecula, the South Bay, and East County—converge on a single-family home in the back country of Vista with their own personal rakes, shovels, and trenching tools.

On a day of the week when most working class citizens were enjoying a chance to sleep in, close to 70 Hunter employees chose to wipe the sand from their sleepy eyes, throw on some old clothes and gloves, and head out to a far corner of the county to do some manual labor on behalf of people whom they never had met before. And whom they would probably never even see.

Community Work a Tradition at Hunter

All this wasn’t something unique or new for Hunter. It was a process that had been played out many times before for a company whose employees have come to consider giving something back to the local community a regular part of their lives.

Over the past decade, here are just some of the local non-profit groups—including organizations that operate such diverse programs as battered women’s shelters and after-school facilities for underprivileged youths—that have benefited from Hunter’s donation of products, time, and manpower:

• Encinitas: Women’s Center
• Escondido: EYE Center, St. Claire’s Home
• Oceanside: Adult Day Care, Ivey Ranch Park, Senior Center, Women’s Resource Center
• San Marcos: San Marcos Middle School, TERI
• Valley Center: Valley Center Little League
• Vista: Alta Vista Gardens, Boys and Girls Club, Girls Inc., Rancho Buena Vista Little League, TERI, Vista American Little League, Vista School District, Vista Sports Field Foundation

Hunter employs nearly 1,000 people at their San Marcos facility (the company has an additional 150 at a North Carolina manufacturing facility, as well as a sales force of approximately 100 scattered around the world). And a typical charity project like the ones for Hands On San Diego will see as many as 100 employees dedicate their time and effort.

That’s a participation rate of about 10%--rather phenomenal for a volunteer effort, not a required one.

CEO Sets an Example for His Employees

For Hunter president and CEO Richard E. Hunter, participating in one of these projects is not a mere photo opportunity where you stop by for a 5-minute courtesy visit and make it appear as if you were there. No, Mr. Hunter puts on jeans and rolls up his sleeves, grabs a shovel or a backhoe, and gets down and dirty with the rest of his employees. Think former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and his Habitat for Humanity involvement. This is the real deal.

Hunter Industries has also been a primary participant in the San Diego Padres’ Little Padres Parks program. For the past decade, the Padres have constructed more than 30 ball fields across San Diego County (and the Temecula Valley) for underprivileged youths. Hunter has supplied all of the irrigation equipment installed at each park.

Of course, projects like these are not the only way Hunter employees give to the community. Employees annually contribute more than $500,000 to the United Way/CHAD Campaign, a figure that is matched each year by CEO Richard Hunter.

Hunter to Get Their “Hands On” Again

This fall, when Hands On San Diego conducts their 14th year of community service projects, Hunter Industries will be there again. At this point in time, the company is looking in the North County area for an appropriate non-profit group in need of the assistance that the irrigation company can provide with its products, its time, and its manpower.

At Hunter, giving something back to the community is truly a “hands on” affair. Which means there is no question there will be plenty of Hunter employees—with picks and shovels in tow—ready to get their hands on the job, wherever they are asked to go.