Associates help and support one another throughout our company with a simple act: wearing jeans to work.
It started with a phone call
A phone call from Pilita’s son changed both their lives in 2015. He was serving in the U.S. Air Force overseas and was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. He was rushed back to the States to his home base in Idaho in order to begin cancer treatments immediately.
Pilita wanted to be with her son, but she was 2,000 miles away. She has been a senior sales support specialist at our headquarters in Marysville, Ohio, since 2014. “A plane ticket to Idaho is a big, unexpected expense,” she says. “I was worried about the cost, but I just had to get there.”
She received a helping hand
A good friend at work told Pilita about our Green for Jeans program, which provides financial support to associates in need. The program is funded and administered by fellow associates who contribute by wearing jeans to work.
Associates at our corporate campus and regional sales offices buy a monthly or yearly pass, which allows them to wear jeans any day of the week. All proceeds go to Green for Jeans. It’s a perk that other companies may dream about, but at SMG, it has helped associates across the entire company since 2007.
“I had only been with Scotts for about a year and half at the time, so I wasn’t sure if I would qualify,” Pilita says. “However, I applied. And because of my Scotts family, I was able to purchase plane tickets and fly out to be with him twice during his chemotherapy.”
Reasons to be thankful
Pilita’s son is now cancer free, and he is also a first-time dad.
“This has been amazing to me,” says Pilita. “No other company I’ve worked for has associates looking out for each other like this. I am so thankful to everyone here.”
