T akashi W atanabe receiving the President s A ward from Chris Killingstad T ennant Company President CEO Community investment is an important priority for T ennant Company and we are committed to our spirit of stewardshipthat is our belief that we can effect positive change in the communities where we live work and play T o recognize our employees who demonstrate exceptional stewardship ever y year we select a small group of employees to receive our Leading Edge A wards From among these award winners we select one ind ividual to receive the President s A ward In 2012 that honor went to T akashi W atanabe a fouryear T ennant employee in charge of industrial sales in the easter n area of Japan On Mar ch 11 2011 Japan experienced a devastating national disasteran earthquake that triggered a tsunami and a subsequent nuclear meltdown The toll on the countr y was staggering Over 15000 people were killed over 6000 were injured and almost 3000 people are s till unaccounted for In addition hundreds of thousands of buildings were destroyed or signifcantly damaged The 2011 T ohoku earthquake was the most power ful known earthquake to have ever hit Japan While cleanup efforts began almost immediately travel to the impacted regions was widely restricted due to the thre at of radioactive poisoning This left the bulk of the rescue and cleanup burden on Japanese residents who were simultaneously dealing with thei r own personal tragedies related to the earthquake T akashi W atanabe a T ennant employee who lives and works in eastern Japan was one of the heroic people who immediately stepped up to help with the cleanup efforts The devastation had hit his territor y including his colleagues and customers He was committed to doing what he could to help He quickly gathered as many T ennantowned demo machines as he could including the T3 and T5 scrubbers and the S20 rider sweeper and set out to navigate a long and diffcult route to the disaster sites There he worked side by side with our customers for days using donated T ennant equipment to help them clean their facilities so they could get back to work and begin the process of rebuilding the ir businesses and their countr y Japan is still dealing with the fallout from this devastating natural disaster Many people are still living in temporar y shelters because their homes were lost and while nearly all the rubble has been removed reconstruction is still lagging in some areas The efforts of people like T ennant s T akashi W atanabe continue to play an important role in the revitalization of the countr y P RESIDENT S A W ARD T akashi W atanabe 20