Amazon Presents $30K Grant To Baltimore City Schools, Offers Free Facility Tours To Students
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Students and teachers from Baltimore City Public Schools visited the Amazon fulfillment center on Tuesday.
They got a behind the scenes look at the 1.2 million square foot building and how the employees use innovative robotic technology to pick, pack and ship customers orders.
"I think the tour was very educational and I really liked how the robots worked and how they moved things," said Christopher, a sixth grader at Cross Country Lake Elementary/Middle School.
Amazon is now offering the free, one hour tours to the public Monday through Friday. There will be two tours per day.
"We want to invite the public to come in and take a look first hand at what our operations look like after they click buy online," said Traci Weishalla, assistant general manager at the Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore.
After the tour, Amazon surprised city school students with a $30,000 grant as part of the launch of the public tours program. The money will be used to support the school district's STEM programs and provide transportation so that 600 students can tour the center this year.
"So $20,000 of that will be in the form of laptops and other equipment that will support their competitions," Weishalla said. "We're also providing a $10,000 donation to give children access to public transportation so they can also come here for tours at out site."
This local tour is part of Amazon's newly expanded public school's program. Baltimore's fulfillment center is joining more than 20 other centers nationwide that will open their doors to customers to see first hand what happens after the buy a product off of Amazon.
"People are going to see our amazing and safe facility where we pick, pack and ship customers orders every day," said Ian Allen-Anderson, Amazon Tour Ambassador.
To book a free tour and see the list of fulfillment centers you can click here.
The center is the equivalent of the size of 28 football fields. It opened in southeast Baltimore in 2015 and has 2,500 full-time employees.