A good neighbor

We're supposed to be on the road right now to Georgetown, Kentucky to visit with my husband's parents for Christmas, but a fever-ridden little boy has detoured our holiday plans. 

Trying not to be blue about being without extended family for the holidays, I was thinking about the recent trip to my old Kentucky home over Thanksgiving.  (We lived in Georgetown when my daughter was born.)

Currently, we live twenty minutes from GM's faltering Saturn plant and our economy struggles under the weight of all the auto industry drama.  Stores are closing left and right, friends' salaries are getting cut, and layoffs are happening every day.  We joke that we have to get to the stores we like before they put a padlock on the door.   Coffee houses with $3 cups of coffee, electronics stores, and a wonderful antique store which collected antebellum architectural elements like columns and old mantels have all closed.  (Editor's update: Dippin' Dots has closed, making the ice cream of the future a thing of the past!)

Basically, these are stores you can live without but make life a tad more interesting.

A trip downtown today showed even more "To Rent" signs in formerly bustling stores.

Over Thanksgiving, however, we did make it to Georgetown, Kentucky -- where Toyota produces some the Camry and other vehicles -- and the scene couldn't have been more different.  Stores were packed, businesses strong, and new hotels dot the landscape near the plant.  (In fact, the Hilton very nice and comfortable, if you're ever in the area for horse events.)

My husband grew up in pre-Toyota Georgetown, and the difference the plant has made in the community is startling.  This article in the New York Times speaks to the way Toyota invests in their community.

In 2007, Toyota, which has five plants in the United States and is set to open a sixth in 2010 in Blue Springs, Miss., donated $57 million to schools, arts organizations, environmental groups and other American charities. Among those donations: $2 million to the Detroit Science Center for a new theater, set to open in December, that will showcase the stories of engineers for students.

Toyota’s contributions have continued this year with its largest ever, a $20 million donation to the National Audubon Society for environmental programs. And, when it opened a safety and engineering center in York Township, Mich., last month, Toyota donated $100,000 to two local school systems, a park and Michigan’s economic development fund.

The article goes on to describe the investment in our former hometown, and I can testify that -- wow -- they've transformed the area.   I guess I've known how much their corporate charity combined with  economic stimultion helps the community, but our recent trip to Georgetown made me realize it anew.

Thanks, Toyota, for investing in the lives of the people of Georgetown, and helping make it a wonderful place... even if I'm only there in heart over the Christmas break.