When 100,000 Medtronic employees around the world pitch in for the medical device company’s annual Global Week of Impact, Steve Laux will bring his crews to a Saint Paul park for the fourth year.
They’ve dug holes to repopulate native plants, removed invasive species and more, tackling tasks in St. Paul parks with co-workers and family. Last year, they worked at Como Park. This year, they’ll be at Trout Brook Nature Sanctuary on June 20.
Laux, senior leader for Medtronic’s Cardiac Rhythm Management section, says his group is one of 10 to 20 other volunteer groups from the company’s Minneapolis headquarters that will head out into the community. Community involvement is part of Medtronic’s GIDE (Global Inclusion Diversity and Equity) focus.
For Laux’s group, the city parks and rec department comes up with a project that needs help from 50 to 75 people, he says.
“It’s always a rotating wheel,” Laux says.
The volunteer day gives Medtronic employees a chance to get to know one another outside the office, Laux says. There’s lunch and family members help – and sometimes difficult weather.
“Last year, they tried to rain us out,” he says. “But we got creative.”
Laux laughs and adds that since he’s the boss, “it’s easy to get 60 people to volunteer.”
And his boss, Jim Vogl, Vice President, Medtronic Patient Care Systems, will be there, too.
Laux, 47, uses a wheelchair and is the founder of the Minnesota Spinal Cord Injury Association. When he was 25 years old and a senior at the University of Michigan, he dove into Lake Superior on a camping trip and hit his head on the floor of the lakebed. He broke his cervical vertebrae 5 and 6.
According to the Spinalpedia website, after rehab, Laux returned to his studies at the University of Michigan within three months, and finished his degree with his class. Next, he went to the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management, where he received his Masters in Business in Marketing.
Laux loves the outdoors, and through the nonprofit Minnesota Spinal Cord Injury Association, he’s helped develop programs for adaptive biking, skiing, fishing, archery and kayaking at Three Rivers Parks. The association provides networking, advocacy and education connected to spinal cord injuries.
Laux met the woman he calls his “perfect wife,” Chau, while volunteering at Courage Center. They live in Maple Grove with their three daughters: MacKenzie, 15; and twins Devon and Dakota, who are 12.
In 2012, Laux was voted Best Dad on Wheels by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. The medical device industry brought him to Minnesota after college.
He says he’s no stranger to working in the parks. When he was growing up in Michigan, he worked for the parks and rec department, mowing and doing other maintenance jobs.
Volunteering is more than fulfilling a community involvement goal for Medtronic, Laux says.
“It’s our way to give back to the parks,” he says. “Volunteering gives you so much more benefit than you give to the park.”
“It’s fun, rain or shine.”
If your business would like to become a Partner for the Parks – and put together a volunteer activity please contact Shari Blindt at [email protected].
Article by Kathy Berdan. Photos courtesy of Steve Laux.