BY ANDREW HEISERMAN
Staff Writer

ROCHELLE – Workers from Americold Logistics and children ages 7-12 at the Rochelle Child Care Center teamed up Tuesday afternoon to build benches, learn to work as a team and support the day care operation.
The Rochelle Child Care Center recently reached out to different corporations in the community seeking donations. Americold was contacted and came up with the idea of hosting a team building exercise rather than simply donating money.
“As Americold we look for opportunities to give back to our community. The theme today is building towards the future, and these are the youth that are going to be driving the next employees,” said Dan Lundquist, Americold general manager.
Once Americold was contacted, company leaders found out the facility was in need of benches, storage space and art supplies and created an event to cater to those needs. The main goal of the event was to give back to the community, but it also focused on teaching the children valuable life lessons.
“We are going to talk to them about the four C’s we try and run our business by; consistency, curiosity, confidence and celebrate,” added Jamie Proctor, general manager of Americold Belvidere. “We are going to talk about what those things mean to them to try and get them to think a little bit.”

At the event workers and children were split up into eight different teams consisting of one child and 4-6 Americold staff members. Each team was given a bench to build, a specific color, and one of the four C’s as their team motto. The C’s also had a specific rule the team must follow such as not being able to speak, no assembly instructions or team members being blindfolded. Once the bench was built, the team had to run to a table and create something related to their motto out of Legos.
According to child care staff, it was hard to tell if the kids were more excited about working together as a team or playing with Legos
“They were just excited to be working with them to build something, and then of course when they heard the word Legos that made them even more excited,” said Sarah Thuestad, child care center executive director.
The Rochelle Child Care Center has done fundraisers in the past, but this is the first time a corporation has come to the center to host their own event with their employees. Thuestad said she and the board are very grateful for everything Americold has done to support them and appreciates any help they receive.
“We are always happy to have community partners like Americold to help the day care center with new projects and are always looking for people or companies that want to partner with us either monetarily or activity wise,” expressed Tricia Herrera, vice president of the board of directors.
If any company or individuals would like to make a donation contact the Rochelle Child Care Center at 815-562-5920.