Keystone Apple's A-Team Gives Back to the Community

With eight units and diverse interest in community outreach projects, Keystone Apple created its ATeam to coordinate events that make a strong impact on the central Pennsylvania community. Area Director R.D. Frye helped form the A-Team in March 2007 by corralling the company’s 600 employees and managers. Since then, the team has logged about 2,000 volunteer hours to support dozens of community events.

GETTING STARTED: Keystone Apple has participated in community outreach events for years, but we needed to get organized. After seeing employees enthusiastically participate in the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art Trustee Celebrity Classic Clay Shoot, we thought, “We serve more than just food.” So we launched our ATeam with representatives from several charity groups, Applebee’s International and Keystone Apple team managers. The A-Team meets quarterly to review previous events, manage upcoming events and determine how best to use the 40-member team’s diverse talents.

KEYS TO SUCCESS: It’s important to have an organization within your restaurant that can drive your community outreach efforts. Once we got everything centralized and began communicating regularly with the team, it really strengthened our work. We also learned it was important to have a vision and establish great partnerships. Instead of just showing up on the day of the event, we keep in touch with our partners and look for ways to really help each other.

PAYOFF: A-Team events are often and varied. Volunteers serve in any capacity they like, such as diving into icy water for the Special Olympics Eskimo Plunge or donating school supplies and stuffing backpacks for the Jim McMinn Backpack Program. We raised $4,300 for the Humane Society’s Dog Days of Summer program; $3,500 for the Military Order of the Purple Heart organization; helped build the Adventure Zone Playground; and we participate in the Special Olympics Area M Sports Classic.

TELL ME SOMETHING GOOD: Our feeling is that we’ve always been involved in lots of different things and that’s important. I’m amazed at the pride employees show in their outreach work and in working for Keystone Apple. When employees talk for days afterward about “battle scars” they received during events like the Eskimo Plunge, you see that pride. After each event, we have a follow-up meeting, and the look in everyone’s face says, “Wow, we just did something good here.”

PAY IT FORWARD: One of the biggest rewards the A-Team has given employees is a lifelong desire to give back. If you leave Applebee’s today, this is something you can take with you for the rest of your life; it becomes an intrinsic part of you.

Restaurant Stats

Name: Keystone Apple
Location: Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
Restaurants: 8
Employees: 16

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