AKRON, Ohio, June 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is celebrating the wrap up and results of its inaugural Week of Volunteering, which was held June 1-7, 2017.

The tiremaker set a goal of engaging more associates in the community than ever before when it launched its week-long volunteer effort. The company's associates rose to the occasion as 1,252 Goodyear associates, retirees and family members volunteered to build a better future in six communities where Goodyear operates from Akron, Ohio—home of the company's world headquarters—to five additional countries where Goodyear has a presence—Brazil, China, Indonesia, Romania and Ukraine.

"Our first Week of Volunteering was an incredible success that brought our company's approach toward giving back in our communities, Goodyear Better Future, to life," said Alison White, Goodyear's director of community engagement. "Goodyear associates are the foundation of our company's commitment to our communities and we are grateful for their contributions of time, skills and resources on behalf of Goodyear. We truly couldn't have done it without them."

Throughout the Week of Volunteering, Goodyear volunteers gave more than 6,000 hours of service, equating to nearly $300,000 worth of time to complete 69 projects that served a variety of community needs involving both general and skills-based volunteerism.

The majority of volunteer activities occurred in Akron where more than 1,000 associates volunteered more than 5,000 hours through 12 non-profit organizations and professional development workshops. Twenty percent of those hours directly benefitted area youth through safety and STEM education programs with Akron Children's Hospital, Boys & Girls Club of the Western Reserve, Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio, Akron Public Schools NIHF STEM Middle School and City of Akron Peacemakers. Goodyear volunteers engaged with students through STEM carnivals, career days, in-class lessons and at road safety events.

Akron volunteers contributed more than 70 percent of their hours to sustainability projects, which included: repacking enough food at the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank to provide more than 33,000 meals to families in need; beautifying landmark areas of Akron, including Lock 2, with the Downtown Akron Partnership and Ohio & Erie Canalway Coalition and completing nearly three-years-worth of maintenance work at the YMCA Camp Y-Noah.

Skills-based projects included opportunities for non-profit organizations to participate in professional development workshops led by Goodyear associates. Goodyear volunteers also worked with the Red Cross of Summit, Portage and Medina Counties installing smoke alarms to improve home safety for at-risk populations.

Goodyear Better Future , the company's corporate social responsibility strategy, focuses on supporting programs that are safe, smart and sustainable and meaningfully engage associates to create positive outcomes in the community.

Goodyear (NASDAQ: GT) is one of the world's largest tire companies. It employs about 66,000 people and manufactures its products in 48 facilities in 21 countries around the world. Its two Innovation Centers in Akron, Ohio and Colmar-Berg, Luxembourg strive to develop state-of-the-art products and services that set the technology and performance standard for the industry. For more information about Goodyear's corporate social responsibility efforts, visit www.goodyear.com/community.

NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS: Videos and photos are available for downloading here:

Video recap of Goodyear's Week of Volunteering: https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/zXqnJV3Njq

Photos from Goodyear's Week of Volunteering: https://spaces.hightail.com/space/2nivY23iNb 

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SOURCE The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company