ValleyCrest Companies Award Five Accident-Free Employees New Ford Trucks

For the fourth consecutive year, ValleyCrest Companies celebrated Safety Awareness Day by awarding five employees with new 2006 Ford F-150 trucks in appreciation of their outstanding safety performance on the job. Safety Awareness Day, an annual event at ValleyCrest, was established to celebrate those employees that best exemplified the company motto, ‘Safety First,’ and to remind everyone about the importance of a safe work environment.  

Only full-time, field employees who have completed one year of accident-free service working at a branch that met or exceeded the company’s safety performance standards qualified for the random truck drawing.  As in past years, Burton Sperber, company founder, CEO and the original mastermind behind the truck giveaway facilitated the random drawing of more than 3,400 eligible employees. 

“The Ford truck giveaway is the highlight of Safety Awareness Day – a day to honor all field employees for continuing to do the beautiful work we do in the safest manner possible,” Sperber says.  “Since starting Safety Awareness Day, we’ve given away more than 20 trucks, and more importantly, our safety record continues to improve year-after-year as a result of this incentive program. I commend our entire field and safety team on a job well done.” 

To ensure that every employee can actively participate in the truck giveaway, each ValleyCrest branch hosts a special event for all employees nationwide where a video is played with a special message from Sperber and the random drawing announcing the five winners is presented. The video is recorded in both English and Spanish to accommodate our entire workforce. 

As part of this year’s Safety Awareness Day, ValleyCrest partnered with the national retailer, Sears, and purchased over $100,000 in gift cards. These cards along with special discounted Sears coupons were shipped to each ValleyCrest branch prior to the July 12 event so that prizes could be purchased for a company-sponsored raffle at each location during Safety Awareness Day.  

“When we first learned about ValleyCrest’s safety program, we were intrigued by its originality and excited to get involved,” says Babette Halder, Sears manager of corporate gift cards.  “Because only five employees win trucks, it’s a nice touch to expand the winner pool with additional gifts, and we’re thrilled those gifts come from Sears.” 

This year’s truck winners include:

• Alfonso B. Fernandez, ValleyCrest Landscape Development, Orange County, Calif.
• Jose A. Vega, ValleyCrest Landscape Development, Austin, Texas
• Anselmo Santamaria Sosa, ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance, Chantilly, Va.
• Federico Velazquez, ValleyCrest Landscape Maintenance, Miami, Fla.
• Salvador Cisneros, Valley Crest Tree Company, Fillmore, Calif.