CARMEL, Ind. -

To help celebrate its 20-year history as an upstream remarketing platform for OEM, captive finance, financial institution and fleet customers, OPENLANE took part in several charitable activities.

One was a $5,000 donation to JDRF, a global organization that funds type 1 diabetes research. On Oct. 10, 25 employees from the OPENLANE Toronto innovation and technology hub participated in the Sun Life Ride to Defeat Diabetes for JDRF. This stationary cycling event took place in Toronto and other Canadian cities.

“What better way to celebrate our 20-year anniversary than by supporting organizations that serve the communities we live and work in or that seek to cure a prevalent disease like type 1 diabetes,” KAR Global president and OPENLANE co-founder Peter Kelly said in a news release.

OPENLANE, a business unit of KAR, celebrated its anniversary by presenting $5,000 checks to two charitable organizations.

The company also announced an employee engagement initiative for next year. That initiative will focus on supporting coding education in Canada.

The Toronto Fire Fighters Toy Drive received the other $5,000 donation. The event helps thousands of Toronto-area needy families celebrate the holidays each year. Through fundraising activities, the employees of OPENLANE and ADESA Canada have worked together to raise more than $9,000 for the toy drive since 2015. ADESA Canada is also a KAR business unit.

Also, OPENLANE in 2020 will encourage employees to use their “Leap Into Service” benefit to serve as volunteer mentors with Canada Learning Code, or CLC. With KAR’s Leap Into Service program, full-time employees can spend eight hours each year — with pay — volunteering in the community.

CLC works to ensure that all Canada residents — particularly women, girls, people with disabilities, indigenous youth, and newcomers — have access to the necessary knowledge to prosper in a digital world.

Also to help celebrate its 20-year history, OPENLANE in September held a similar event at the company’s Mesa, Ariz. office. At that event, OPENLANE presented a $10,000 check to United Food Bank of Mesa. As a day of service volunteer activity, participating employees packed 2,400 bags of food for the food bank.

“It can be overwhelming to think about all the needs in a city, but I’m encouraged by the way our OPENLANE employees always step up to support worthy causes, here in Toronto and in our other locations,” Kelly said.