Relay For Life 2015
A team of dedicated Townsend Partners took special time and effort this past weekend to show their support for friends and family, to get involved in the community, and to take an action toward… Full Aritcle
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A team of dedicated Townsend Partners took special time and effort this past weekend to show their support for friends and family, to get involved in the community, and to take an action toward helping create a future that holds no place for cancer. Once again, Team Townsend was out at our local Relay For Life, raising money and spirits.
Team Townsend had a variety of fund raising efforts, selling water and goodies, selling hand-crafted inspiring crafts from one of our own, Tiffany, donations, a super fun casino bus trip, and even working with our local Applebee’s restaurant!
The final total is still out, but Team Townsend has raised over $1800 toward cancer research so far this year!
The Team had so much fun working hard at the Fulton-Montgomery Relay for Life. The team manned the Townsend Tent for the hundreds of people walking around by selling items, raffling a handbag, giving hair extensions, and painting faces.
Thank you so much to Louise Kucel, Jamie Kucel, Mary Ellen Palmateer, Rebecca Danelorich, Larissa Groesbeck, Tiffany Young, Ashley Donald, Kim Russo, Cindy Moyer and her mother Merry, Sharon Wager and fiancé Tim, Cheryl & Steppy Brothers, Jared, Olivia, and Sarah Eckler, Cathy Willis and her daughters. You each helped make this a meaningful and impactful time. Your involvement, passion, and care made this a special memorable event, and is an example of how awesome Team Townsend truly is.
Everyone at the Relay For Life event has stories and memories of the time. One memorable story stuck out for one of our team’s face painters, the master of crafts, Tiffany:
“I met a family that really stuck out in my mind; they were one of the first face painting customers that I had Saturday morning. Their 2 year old daughter was a miracle baby! The mother is a survivor of brain cancer, which was reluctant to rid her body. She suffered in many different ways and the doctor pretty much told her that she would never have children. Then, she became pregnant with their daughter. They visited the booth twice, for two different face paintings during the day. It was very touching hearing her story and having the opportunity to meet someone so thankful and happy about Life after Cancer. She was truly an inspiration. She was emotional telling the story, but kept looking down at her daughter with a huge smile on her face. I do not think I will ever forget them.”
Relay for life events always hold so much emotion and meaning. Everyone knows someone touched by cancer and that is what makes the luminary lighting, after the sun sets, such powerful.
“The luminary lighting at night is always a beautiful and memorable part of the event as it really brings it home how many people are affected by cancer.”
Donations are being accepted for Townsend’s Relay For Life Team until August, click here for info and to donate, Team Townsend Relay For Life
Looking forward to Relay for Life 2016.
Most places have an R&D team to develop and test products, but Townsend has an ART & D Team to create and inspire with products.
Our team of leather experts have years of balanced history, spending as much time creating art as they have working with leather. They understand leather on a chemical and physical level, knowing what finishes and products will work and last with the leather, knowing what will stand up the the abuse a seat sees in a lifetime, and knowing how to work with every kind of hide. All while still having a deep understanding of complimentary colors, artistic balance, various creation techniques.
This is much more than a Research & Development team, this is a Art & Design Team creating products that inspire, impress, and delight.
This week our ART & D team, under the direction of our head resident artist, has been hard at working creating a stunning new collection. This is still in the early stages, not ready for sampling or details, but take a look at some of the photos of these eye catching pieces and the companions.
Luxury, hand crafted, artistically developed, painted pig skin that can be easily translated to goat, lamb or cow hide as well. This collection especially showcases our capability to create distinctively designed leathers using a variety of techniques and utilize a full range of materials and be fun and attractive while doing so.
A Super Team of Townsend Partners took a trip to Albany yesterday, to participate in the huge CDPHP Workforce Challenge 5K event.
Our team had matching “Super Townsend” shirts and even Townsend Capes! to help speed them along during the run.
After some relaxed conversation and fun team camaraderie on the bus trip down, our super crew arrived at the run along with 10,200+ other participants!
This is a huge event with companies from all over the area participating. It was perfect weather, cool and overcast, with beautiful scenery to take a run or a walk. And even in that size crowd you could still spot Townsend super heroes here and there.
The excitement to start was palpable. With that many people all anxious to move – you can feel the buzz around you. And to know we were running to raise money for charity, made the event even more exciting and meaningful.
A couple of our team were even spotted by Times Union.
Everyone did awesome and were still all smiles at the end of the race.
The event was tremendous fun with a truly super team. We are looking forward to next year!
Townsend Leather had an exciting time celebrating Earth Day 2015, balanced with fun and meaning.
Townsend is so lucky to have such scenic beautiful property. We spent part of the day outside in our company pavilion next to our pond enjoying food, conversation, and the great outdoors. Our annual event focused on having fun and enjoying the beautiful area we live and work in – our own backyard.
Not many people can say they work at a place with its own pavilion, outdoor seating areas, grass to walk in, trees to sit under, plants to admire, a creek to listen to, and even their own pond! But we are so grateful for our access to nature and this day we fully enjoyed it.
After some food and relaxation, Jared spoke to the group relaying the news of our newly awarded 2015 Top Work Place recognition and excitement for the impress team we have.
We then, as a company, took a moment to reflect on Townsend’s past and honored the late great matriarch of Townsend Leather, Dorothy Kucel.
When we are all fed, we will gather by the Red Memorial Park sign, to take a moment to reflect on Townsend’s past and to honor the late great matriarch of Townsend – Dorothy Kucel.
Dorothy, Red Kucel’s (Townsend Leather Founder) wife / Terry Kucel’s(Chairman of the Board/Townsend Legend), Louise Kucel’s (Shipping Leader), and Kevin Kucel’s(Director of OEM Aircraft Sales) mother / Sarah (SVP of Sales and Marketing) and Tricia’s (SVP of Customer Service) grandmother, and relative or friend to countless other… was a founding member of Townsend Leather and instrumental to its history and lore, she passed away this past fall.
Townsend Partners honored her legacy and memory by planting lilac bushes (her favroite) at the Red Kucel Memorial Park (Townsend’s pavilion/park/backyard).
After honoring a Townsend legacy we took some time to honor the earth, in one of the strangest and funnest ways we could. We had prepared to garden areas in front of our main building and then we setup for fun! Using “Seed Bombs” from our friends on Etsy we planted wildflowers.
How often do you get to throw dirt clumps at your boss?! We planted wildflowers by throwing them at our President and SVP of Production! They were kept safe with custom made cardboard shields and face masks, but as soon as we said the word go a storm of seed bombs were launched their way!
Most were hand thrown, but we also had a handcrafted catapult on hand to give the seeds some extra umph!
Jared and Jeff were great sports about it and kept the fun going until the last seed was thrown.
We worked together to press the seeds in and jump start the growth.
It was tremendous fun with lots of laughs and good times. Watching the smiles on everyone’s faces as the seed bombs were launched and exploded against Jeff and Jared’s shields (and sometimes heads or faces) was a delight. This is an impressive team of people who so willingly join together to make fun and meaningful moments happen. We can’t wait for next year!
We get excited for every trade show, but this time of year is especially exciting as we send teams across the globe from Las Vegas to Switzerland to put a spotlight on the new exciting things Townsend has been working on. And we have some truly exciting things to spotlight.
The Townsend booths will be brimming with new luxurious leathers. Some of them will be fresh out of our R&D and ART&D departments, not even named yet. Booth attendees will get a first hand exclusive look at some of the unique design enhancing leathers our team is creating.
These shows will also be the first time Townsend fans will get to see, and get their hands on, our newest product offering – a textured metallic leather with a stunning retro luxury feel – our Metallic Perfectly Pebbled.
A new line of lustrous metal-inspired leathers, Metallic Perfectly Pebbled, takes texture to new heights and transforms seven metal-inspired colors onto leather. These hides are produced as an aniline-dyed, finished cowhide that have been embossed with a small pebble grain embossing and accented with popular tone-on-tone metallic effects. Offered in whole cowhides, averaging 55-60 sf each, these leathers meet all industry standards and are suitable for most all upholstery and wall applications.
Metallic Perfectly Pebbled highlights a color range of soft metals that is warmth in hue, but emphasizes the brilliancy of each pebbled tip. Mixing combinations of rustic and retro styles with comfortable, classy, and modern design creates gorgeous interior spaces. Metallic Perfectly Pebbled is the perfect transitional leather. The characteristic finish effect of this leather artwork is applied by hand; the resulting variance in design and color are part of its natural beauty.
We will also be introducing an entire new collection of leathers at HD and EBACE. You can get a sneak peak here, but you’ll have to stop by the booth for the real deal and full details.
Our Jetsetter Collection…
A mix and match set of luxury leather inspired by the high life and the jet setter attitude, the Jetsetter Collection is an opportunity to create. These leathers are hand selected to coordinate and create beauty wherever they’re used. But to get the full impact you’ll have to stop by the booth to see them in person.
We are immensely proud and honored at the recognition Townsend Leather has received over the past 12 months.
It is exciting to work at a place where everyone loves what they do, they are working toward goals bigger than themselves, and are doing it while working together.
In the past 12 months, Townsend Leather has been recognized as having an engaged, happy, and effective team. We have been acknowledged as a go-to place for quality employment and meaningful work, in the region. Townsend Leather, because of its people, their values and teamwork has been recognized as a TOP WORK PLACE of 2014 by the Times Union, a BEST PLACE TO WORK of 2014 by the Albany Business Review, lead by a 40 UNDER 40 Influential Leader (President Jared Eckler) by the Albany Business Review, and just recently announced a TOP WORK PLACE of 2015 by the Times Union!
This year Townsend Leather placed 10th in the mid-sized business category for the Times Union Top Work Places recognition. That is a real accomplishment considering, over 700 total companies were looked at!
Townsend Leather also received special recognition as a part of our employee feedback. Townsend was awarded the “Clued in Senior-Management Team” award. This was in response to so many Townsend Partners expressing trust and high expectations in our senior leadership team.
This award is a reflection of our people and our work environment and we feel so honored to have publicly known, what we all know and see here each day.
You can see mention of Townsend’s special recognition and some photos at the Times Union website, Top Workplace Awards 2015.
See the full company listing here, Times Union Top Workplace 2015
It is the Townsend Partners, the Townsend community, the Townsend family that make Townsend what it is. All the Partners at Townsend who come every day to share their skills and passions, push things forward, and do so with a smile on their face – this is what makes Townsend a great company and a great place to work. Townsend Leather was awarded these recognitions for and by its employees. And it is truly the employees that have earned them because they are the people that ensure a positive and fulfilling work atmosphere. Townsend employees are some of the most passionate, hardest-working, and quality-driven people you will find anywhere. Their wholehearted and overwhelmingly positive responses to survey questions on subjects such as the company’s vision & mission, its leadership, its sense of teamwork and community, and benefits resulted in making Townsend Leather recognized as a Top Work Place and a Best Place to Work with 40 Under 40 Leadership.
See below for some photos of each award. As well as links to each full post.
The 2015 Class of “40 Under 40” for Albany has been revealed, and Townsend Leather President, Jared Eckler is one of them!
The Albany Business Review is the host and publisher of this prestigious award. They combed through over 500 nominations from the Albany area of leaders “under the age of 40 who demonstrate business acumen, leadership skills and community involvement. They set the pace of the local business landscape now and for the future.”
Townsend Leather’s own daring, caring, and leather loving President, Jared Eckler was nominated and chosen as one of the winners of this esteemed honor.
Read the full post here, Led by Daring Greatness
The Albany Business Review recently announced the 2014 Top 30 Best Places To Work in the Albany Area and Townsend Leather made the list!
This honor is given to Townsend as a result of employee surveys sent out by the prestigious and tough-reviewing Albany Business Review. Because of the love shared and expressed by Townsend partners for Townsend Leather and their work here, we were chosen as one of the Top 30 workplaces in the entire greater Albany area.
Partners expressed praise for Townsend Leather’s leadership, culture, benefits, and work environment among many other aspects of work life. Everyone here at Townsend has such a high level of trust and feels valued for their individual and team contributions. It is exciting that this love of Townsend, that everyone here knows and feels, will continue to be shared and spread throughout the community with this announcement.
Read the full post here, Best Place to Work
Townsend Leather is incredibly proud to be recognized as a Top Work Place for 2014!
In late April of 2014, New York Capital Region’s premier news source, The Times Union, awarded 45 companies the honor of Top Work Place 2014.
Townsend Leather is proud and honored to have been selected as one of them.
Each year the Times Union explores the large Greater Capital District for worthy companies. Over 600 companies were looked at as potential Top Work Place honorees. Through detailed analysis of thousands of employee submitted surveys, The Times Union and Workforce Dynamics narrowed down the top employers in the region to just 45 companies.
Each of these 45 companies, were categorized into three size categories: Large (500+ employees), Mid-Sized (150-499 employees), and Small (35-149 employees).
Townsend Leather was selected as one of the top 15 Mid-Size companies.
“There is a family atmosphere here and everyone works as a team towards the same goal. ” – Townsend Employee
Read the full post here, Top Workplace 2014
Townsend is excited to be awarded with something that all our many employees, customers, visitors, and fans have known for years – Townsend Leather is a truly great company!
To our great delight, “The Fabulous Beekman Boys” took some time out of their busy schedule to spend some time at Townsend Leather earlier this week.
Josh and Brent “Josh Kilmer-Purcell (advertising executive and NY Times Bestselling author of I Am Not Myself These Days & The Bucolic Plague) and his partner Brent Ridge (physician and former Vice President of Healthy Living for Martha Stewart Omnimedia) purchased the historic Beekman 1802 Farm in 2007″ – quoted from www.beekman1802.com, also known from their appearance on (and winning of) The Amazing Race and their own television show The Fabulous Beekman Boys, were on somewhat of a “celebrating the region tour” when they stopped in for an afternoon at Townsend.
It was such a delight to spend some time sharing our passion with this highly interested and engaged couple. Being such fans of expert craftsmanship and a ‘back to the earth mentality’, Josh and Brent seemed to be quite taken by all Townsend had to offer. Asking many questions and digging deep into the world of leather.
We were able to give them a detailed tour and explore all the different aspects of making luxury leather with them.
Brent and Josh run their busy farm where they handcraft soaps, cheese, and many many other goods in nearby Sharon Springs NY. They have a keen eye for quality and design and it was a pleasure to show pride in our own quality, colors and designs and share in their excitement.
Beyond just talking leather and our shared passions for great natural products. Brent and Josh were just fun guys to be around.
But it wasn’t all just laughs. They take their “studies” seriously and were genuinely interested in Townsend, our products, processes, and people. They wanted to learn everything to expand upon their already vast and varied knowledge base.
It was a great visit, full of interesting conversation and fun. We were proud to have Josh and Brent visit our ‘leather home’ and learn more about us. We are also proud of the impressive work they are doing in and for the region.
It is always a pleasure to host visitors to Townsend and an extra one to host visitors that want to learn and talk and explore. This is a meaningful visit for us and we look forward to growing our relationship with The Fabulous Beekman Boys in the future.
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