While many others were struggling throughout the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Continental Siding owner Alec Cook took it upon himself to do as much as he could for the local community to help rebuild the area and help as many citizens as we could. When it came time for the Independence Economic Development Council to name their 2020 Philanthropic Business of the Year, the choice was obvious and Continental Siding was able to be recognized for all of the hard work they had done to help out the local area.

Vice President of the Independence Economic Development Council stated that the “Philanthropic Business of the Year award is a very important award to us and we really couldn’t have seen a better business picked than the award winner. They do so many great things throughout the community whether it be helping veterans, giving scholarships, their employees even working and giving back at local food shelters during Christmas. However, what they’ve done during COVID-19 is truly remarkable.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Alec Cook recognized that he was in a place to be able to help out more than many other local businesses were able to do so. This began by setting up a 100 Days of Giving program from day one of the stay at home order. We offered a matching donation of $10,000 to City Union Mission, donated 30,000 meals to Harvesters, gave $500 gift cards to 32 single mothers in need, paid a 20% pay bonus to all staff for all three payrolls of the stay-at-home order, and also provided a $500 “someone in need” bonus to all staff members so they could be generous to someone they knew that was in need.

These many initiatives truly stood out to the President of the Independence Economic Development Council, who said: “Continental Siding has given back to the community, engaged in the community, and been the model of what you want to see in a partner.” Even local businesses throughout the community recognized the hard work Continental Siding was doing to give back and were reaching out to them for extra help which Alec Cook was happy to provide.

We understood that it was our responsibility to help out others in the community who had lost their jobs or weren’t doing as well as they used to because we were able to continue working throughout the entire pandemic. Instead of just saving that extra money and not doing anything at all, Alec Cook knew the right thing to do was to try and be part of the solution and give hope when things were so scary and intense for so many people.