Learn More (PDF) - General Motors

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Refurbished Lasky Recreation Center Reopens
GM Foundation donation helps Center welcome back families
DETROIT – Local youth and families today joined Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and GM North America
President Mark Reuss, vice chairman of the General Motors Foundation, to reopen the newly renovated
Lasky Recreation Center.
The Center had been under construction since November 2011 after the GM Foundation made a $2
million grant for its renovation. Improvements include new roofing, air conditioning units, gym windows,
paint, motorized handicapped lift, a larger boxing ring, added windows, roof repairs, remodeled restrooms
and locker rooms, new LED lights in the parking lot and more. The Foundation’s grant also made
possible upgrades to Detroit’s Joseph Walker Williams Recreation Center.
Lasky will resume hosting a variety of activities for kids up to age18, and it will again be a welcoming
place for youth and families to be active and learn year round.
“The Lasky Community center is the heart of this Detroit neighborhood and we are grateful to the General
Motors Foundation for once again stepping up to bring essential resources to support the youth and
families of our city,” Bing said.
Said Reuss: “As a corporate leader in this community, we must do all we can to help the city’s youth and
bring the city back to its former vitality. Seeing the children learn and play together here today is another
step toward further strengthening the fabric of Detroit.”
General Motors’ teamGM Cares employee volunteers joined the celebration, leading indoor and outdoor
activities at the Center, including boxing, disc and mini-golf and radio-controlled car racing. Just a few
weeks ago, they cleaned up Lasky’s Jayne Field No. 4, pulling weeds and painting the dugout and
bleacher areas to help ready it for the 2012 youth baseball season.
Forgotten Harvest, dedicated to eradicating hunger in metro Detroit, supplied hundreds of sack lunches
and opened its mobile food pantry to residents at the re-opening event.
“Forgotten Harvest, America’s largest and most efficient food rescue organization, will provide an
additional 1 million free, nutritious meals to Detroit's underserved children this summer," said Russ
Russell, chief development officer, Forgotten Harvest. "It's imperative that the City, corporations and
nonprofits stand together to make a positive impact on the lives of our residents in need.”
For more information on the center, including directions and activities planned there this summer, please
visit www.detroitmi.gov or call (313) 224-INFO (4636).
###

About the GM Foundation
Since its inception in 1976, the GM Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to American
charities, educational organizations and to disaster relief efforts worldwide. The GM Foundation focuses
on supporting Education, Health and Human Services, Environment and Energy and Community
Development initiatives, mainly in the communities where GM operates. Funding of the GM Foundation
comes solely from GM. The last contribution to the GM Foundation was made in 2001. For more
information, visit www.gm.com/gmfoundation.
About Forgotten Harvest
Forgotten Harvest was formed in 1990 to fight two problems: hunger and waste. Forgotten Harvest is on
target to rescue over 42 million pounds of food this fiscal year by collecting surplus prepared and
perishable food from 455 sources, including grocery stores, fruit and vegetable markets, restaurants,
caterers, dairies, farmers, wholesale food distributors and other Health Department-approved sources.
This donated food, which would otherwise go to waste, is delivered free-of-charge to more than 250
emergency food providers in the Metro Detroit area. Learn more about Forgotten Harvest and how to
help drive hunger from our community at www.forgottenharvest.org.
Contact:
Naomi Patton
Press Secretary, City of Detroit
313-628-4255 or 313-600-0461
pattonn@detroitmi.gov
Maria Mainville
GM Foundation Communications
313-573-7794
maria.mainville@gm.com
###