IP donates to Alabama town’s rebuilding effort

Memphis, Tennessee-based International Paper (IP) says it has donated $75,000 to a California-based disaster relief organization to help rebuild 10 homes and another $25,000 to a foundation that will plant trees. Both donations are being directed toward Selma, Alabama, following tornadoes that struck that community in 2021.

IP says the $75,000 donation has gone to El Segundo, California-based Team Rubicon, while the $25,000 one went to the Nebraska-based Arbor Day Foundation.

In 2021, tornados and severe storms “battered Selma,” IP says, and both nonprofits have been involved in the rebuilding effort. “During the response, Team Rubicon realized that many homeowners in Selma needed additional assistance to make their homes safer and more resilient against future storms,” IP says.

IP says it has “special ties” to Selma because its Riverdale Containerboard Mill is currently the largest employer in Dallas County, which includes Selma, with more than 750 employees. The mill makes recycled-content corrugated board products.

Feb. 24, staff members from IP’s Riverdale Mill visited the work site at one of the homes being repaired by Team Rubicon. Riverdale Mill volunteers also will be assisting with planting trees in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation, says IP.

IP says the trees being planted “are an important part of the community recovery process” since they “will help replace trees lost in the storm as well as build climate resiliency."

“We take our responsibility as a community member and partner very seriously,” says Bretton DeJong, mill manager at the Riverdale facility. “Helping our neighbors in the communities where we live and work is a blessing, a privilege, and a challenge we gladly accept.”

IP also says Selma has played “a critical role in American civil rights history, with the March from Selma to Montgomery marking a turning point in the Civil Rights movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights act in 1965.”

“Our approach to disaster relief is rooted in the belief that every community deserves a chance to recover,” comments Art delaCruz, CEO of Team Rubicon. “In a place like Selma, the combination of physical hazards and socio-economic risks make equitable recovery from disasters challenging.”