Duracell partners with Oak Grove School

From left are Bill Barkley, Duracell plant manager; Teddy Bryson, Oak Grove principal; and Sherry Crye, Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce.

CLEVELAND, Tenn. (Nov. 3, 2008)—“Touching lives, improving life.” Duracell, a Procter & Gamble Company, which employs approximately 525 people, proudly displays this slogan in the lobby of their local manufacturing plant.

“Duracell has a history of encouraging its employees to ‘touch lives and improve life’ by giving their time and resources in the local community,” Nancy Neal, director of communications, noted. “As good corporate citizens for more than 45 years, they are taking that commitment a step further by becoming a BEST partner with Oak Grove Elementary School.”

BEST, an acronym for Business & Education Serving Together, is a workforce development initiative of the Chamber of Commerce that partners local businesses and schools. The purpose is to strengthen the quality of the educational process through the utilization of community resources, to foster better understanding between the business community and the schools, and to expand learning opportunities for everyone involved in the partnership effort.

Duracell became a member of the Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce in 1962 when they were known as Mallory Battery. As part of The Procter & Gamble Company, Duracell is the world’s leading manufacturer and marketer of high-performance alkaline batteries. The tradition of innovation, started in the early 1920s with an inventive scientist named Samuel Ruben and an eager manufacturer of tungsten filament wire named Philip Rogers Mallory, is still evident in new DURACELL batteries such as DURACELL ULTRA with M3 Technology®. Duracell also markets primary lithium and zinc air batteries as well as rechargeable nickel-metal hydride batteries.

Oak Grove, one of 11 elementary schools in the Bradley County Schools System, is located on Durkee Road.

For more information about the Chamber’s BEST partnership program, contact Sherry Crye, director of workforce development, at 472-6587.

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