Carolina Handling recently received a Mercury Excellence Award for The Patriotic Pallet Project, a record-setting event that created the world’s largest pallet painting. The silver Mercury Award was given in the Special Project category for a three-minute, behind-the-scenes project video that was released on Veterans Day 2022.
A behind-the-scenes look at creating the world’s largest pallet painting
Carolina Handling recently received a Mercury Excellence Award for The Patriotic Pallet Project, a record-setting event that created the world’s largest pallet painting. The silver Mercury Award was given in the Special Project category for a three-minute, behind-the-scenes project video that was released on Veterans Day 2022.
Held annually, the International Mercury Awards honor the best in public relations, public affairs and corporate communications. Presented by MerComm, Inc., the world's only independent awards organization dedicated to defining the standards of excellence in the communications fields, the 2022–23 Mercury Awards received more than 400 entries from 14 countries. Only the top 30 percent-scoring entries placed high enough to win a gold, silver or bronze award.
“To win what is considered to be the most prestigious prize in public relations makes The Patriotic Pallet Project even more special and brings added recognition to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and active-duty military,” said Carolina Handling Director of Marketing Donna Waldrep.
Here’s an inside look at the unique project that was designed to capture the attention of those outside the material handling industry about careers in the industry and the culture of Carolina Handling, one of the Southeast’s leading material handling solutions providers.
A humble beginning
The project began with the humble pallet—a key part of Carolina Handling’s history. In 1939, George Raymond, Sr., founder of The Raymond Corporation, was granted patents for the double-faced wooden pallet and the hydraulic hand pallet truck, revolutionizing the material handling industry. And it focused on Carolina Handling’s support of those who served in the military. About 13 percent of the company’s workforce served in the U.S. Armed Forces, and supporting veteran services is a pillar of its philanthropic giving.
Presented in partnership with pallet provider 48forty Solutions, The Patriotic Pallet Project featured 2,500 wooden pallets painted 16 different colors and laid down in a grid-like pattern to form a portrait of Lady Liberty—an image selected for its universal appeal and symbol of freedom.
Each pallet represented a pixel in the 50x50 pallet painting, which measured 26,325 square feet and set the record for the world’s largest pallet painting.
“We didn’t want to simply place pallets on the ground then have an artist paint an image across them,” Waldrep explained. “We wanted to get our associates involved, and because of that, it became a passion project for our veteran and nonveteran associates alike.”
The company’s marketing team began the search for a pallet partner, contacting two companies before meeting representatives of 48forty Solutions, the largest pallet company in North America, at the MODEX trade show in Atlanta. As it turned out, one of the company’s 245 facilities is in Gray Court, South Carolina—just 27 miles from Greenville, South Carolina, where The Patriotic Pallet Project would be staged and recorded for the Veterans Day video.
Organizing the grid
Work to prepare the pallets began in late August. Carolina Handling transportation specialists began trucking the 2,500 loaned pallets to a warehouse next to Greenville’s Downtown Airport. On September 7, pallets were removed from the warehouse and laid down across the building’s side parking lot where 40 Carolina Handling associates painted them 16 different colors. Pallets were placed back into the warehouse by color. A week later, associates returned to organize the colorful pallets into five sections (A to E), numbering them in the precise order forklifts would lay them down to form the painting.
The painting was divided into five columns of 50 rows, with 10 pallets in each row. Five forklift drivers—all veterans representing the branch of the military in which they served—delivered pallets within their column, resembling a warehouse where a forklift operator travels up and down a path picking up only their section. That helped ensure that drivers never crossed paths and that pallets would be dropped correctly.
Incorporating Raymond Lean Management (RLM)
In addition to veteran recognition and associate collaboration, The Patriotic Pallet Project provided the perfect opportunity to implement Raymond Lean Management (RLM) principles. Continuous Improvement Supervisor Ashely Watkins attended associate painting day to observe the process and offer suggestions to minimize touchpoints for pallet organization and assembly days.
For example, several pallets of every color were brought to a central organization site to reduce the number of trips made to retrieve individual pallets as certain colors were needed. And teams from Carolina Handling’s Equipment Distribution Center and Renewed shops offered their logistics expertise to make speed, distance and time calculations for assembly day. They also served as section spotters to ensure forklift drivers were picking up the proper stacks.
No room for error
With event space available for only one day, there was no room for error. With the weather cooperating with blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70s, Lady Liberty’s portrait was formed in four hours, without a practice run and with all 2,500 pallets placed correctly. A camera drone captured the finished painting from 450 feet.
“When you consider the size and scope of this project, when you see 2,500 pallets stacked in a warehouse and realize you need to paint them, organize them into stacks according to where they’ll be placed in the grid, then drop them in the correct order, it’s amazing that we executed it without a practice run.,” Waldrep said. “It’s a testament to our associates, who had only seen the image on a computer screen but were committed to a quality outcome. It became a passion project for them, and they crushed it.”
Go HERE to view the behind-the-scenes video of The Patriot Pallet Project.
