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K2M and ECHO Achieve 2 Years of Successful Partnership

It is with great pleasure that we celebrate two years of partnership—and a relationship that began more than ten years ago—between K2M Group Holdings, Inc. and Every Citizen Has Opportunities, Inc. (ECHO) in recognition of the company’s contributions to increase employability of people with significant disabilities. K2M, a global medical device company focused on designing and commercializing innovative technologies and techniques used by spine surgeons around the globe to treat patients suffering from complicated spinal diseases, continues to partner with ECHO to further the independence, promotion and upward mobility of individuals with significant disabilities.

K2M employs a crew of 14 individuals with disabilities through ECHO. K2M requires a high degree of perfection before products leave its facility for the operating room, and individuals with disabilities play an important role in this. The Production Department team assembles sterile procedure kits for spinal surgery and packages inserts detailing indications for use. The ECHO team working in the Quality Control Department employs rigorous attention to detail when scanning and indexing medical documents associated with the spinal technology product, which are key to regulators. Having that information and level of detail available to K2M is critical.

The partnership allows K2M to free up other employees from other tasks, which “multiplies the value of my existing labor force,” as K2M‘s Dave MacDonald, Senior Vice President of Operations, comments. “K2M wants to employ individuals with disabilities because employing people makes everything else possible—give a person a job and that’s how they become self-sufficient, independent, resourceful, and have a sense of self-worth, pride, accomplishment and belonging—all these things come with being productive.”

K2M is a good corporate citizen, helping those less advantaged by giving them a path to greater independence through employment. MacDonald added, “It’s important to us because we’re in the business of developing things that help treat people. That motivates our employees to work at an organization that services a greater good—our relationship is part of the larger ecosystem of

Northern Virginia we live in. Anything we can do to create opportunity for that is good for everyone involved.”

Not only does K2M provide employment opportunities but they also support ECHO fundraisers and community events. For example, K2M was recently a final sponsor in ECHO’s 22nd Annual Tennis Classic where they donated $5,000 to the cause. This sponsorship makes it possible for ECHO to maintain a committed dedicated staff, improve upon transportation services, and expand more opportunities to existing and future participants.

The partnership has been recognized in local Loudoun County newspaper articles and testimonials, including the Loudoun Times Mirror and in a submission for the Washington Business Journal 2016 Corporate Citizenship Awards. Congresswoman Barbara Comstock has also voiced support for ECHO and their partner companies, as reported in Loudoun Now.

MacDonald summed it up in a recent Loudoun Times-Mirror article, stating: “As we continue to grow and succeed we’ll look for ways to expand our partnership. It’s a win-win for us.”