More than 600 employees with Talecris Biotherapeutics spent Friday and today volunteering at 26 nonprofit agencies, mostly across Johnston County.
The "Talecris Cares" event is timed to happen as the company's massive drug-manufacturing plant in Clayton halts production for maintenance and upgrades. About 1,500 workers at the factory make medicines from blood plasma.
The plant will be shut down for 4 to 6 weeks, and employees will spend much of that time doing training. The volunteer effort originated out of the company's interest in using part of the factory's down time about every 18 months to give back to the community.
This year, workers volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Johnston County Animal Shelter and Howell Woods environmental learning center in Four Oaks. A group of workers also visited Ft. Bragg to volunteer at two elementary schools on the base and help prepare barracks for the return of 240 soldiers from Iraq.
The company will spend $20 million to maintain and upgrade its Clayton plant during the next few weeks.
Assistant Business Editor Alan M. Wolf joined the N&O in 1999 covering the business of health care. He became an editor in 2001, and helps oversee the paper's daily business coverage and Sunday Work&Money section. He lives in Clayton with his wife and two children. Reach him at 919-829-4572 or