LOUISVILLE, Ky., -- Oct. 9, 2026 – More than 1,000 GE Appliances, a Haier company employees are rolling up their sleeves today for the company’s 5th annual Blue Wave, supporting more than 40 community service projects across the country and advancing year-round partnerships with nonprofit organizations in the communities where employees live and work. The projects will address needs ranging from food access and education to disaster preparedness, accessibility and stronger neighborhoods.

GE Appliances employees are using the skills they bring to work every day to help community partners uniquely solve real problems. From developing a new digital tool to help the American Red Cross reach more families with lifesaving smoke alarms, to creating a hands-on manufacturing learning experience with Catholic Charities of Louisville, to advancing accessibility with the American Printing House, GE Appliances employees are co-creating lasting solutions to help area nonprofits.

“Zero distance is about getting close to people, listening to what they need and then working together to find a better way,” said Kevin Nolan, CEO of GE Appliances. “Our employees are problem solvers. When they bring that same creativity, expertise and energy to our community partners, we can do more than complete a project for a day. We can help create solutions that have the potential to make a lasting difference.”

This year’s Blue Wave deepens work with GE Appliances’ long-standing community partnerships in STEM education and workforce pathways, food access, housing security and disaster response. We are combining corporate resources with employee expertise, manufacturing capabilities, and skills-based volunteerism to co-create solutions with community partners.

Blue Wave began in 2021 and has grown into GE Appliances’ company-wide commitment to year-round volunteerism.

“Blue Wave has never been about showing up for one day, checking a box and moving on,” said Katina Whitlock, senior director of People, Culture and Community Engagement at GE Appliances and executive director of the Good Things, For Life Foundation. “Our strongest partnerships are built year-round. Our nonprofit partners know their communities, and our employees bring incredibly diverse skills in engineering, technology, manufacturing, design, logistics and problem-solving. When we put those capabilities together, we can create solutions that are practical, sustainable and sometimes scalable far beyond one community.”

Finding a Better Way to “Sound the Alarm”

  • One of this year’s most innovative Louisville projects extends GE Appliances’ long relationship with the American Red Cross Louisville Area Chapter and its Sound the Alarm initiative.
  • Through the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign, volunteers visit homes to install free smoke alarms and help families prevent devastation from fires.
  • Marcia Brey, vice president of Logistics for GE Appliances and a longtime Red Cross volunteer and board leader, saw an opportunity to make the process even more effective. Door-to-door outreach can mean volunteers arrive when residents are not home or are not prepared for an installation. Applying GE Appliances’ philosophy that there is always a better way, Brey developed a digital scheduling application using new AI-enabled tools. The new tool allows residents to request assistance and be connected with available Red Cross volunteers who can install and update home fire alarms.
  • The new application is being piloted in Louisville, with the goal of creating a model that can be scaled to other communities.

Bringing Manufacturing Skills into the Community

  • GE Appliances is also expanding its longstanding relationship with Catholic Charities of Louisville to develop a mock assembly line experience designed to introduce participants to modern manufacturing as a potential career path.
  • The project will be led by GE Appliances Latin Roots Employee Resource Group and Manufacturing Ambassadors from Appliance Park, who will use their firsthand experience building appliances to expose more people to manufacturing -- a key industry driving the Louisville economy.

Designing for Greater Accessibility at The Dot Experience

  • Employees from GE Appliances’ industrial design operation (IDO), marketing and other team will also support The Dot Experience at the American Printing House, a new Louisville museum designed from the ground up around inclusion and accessibility.
  • For Blue Wave, GE Appliances’ IDO employees will help prepare appliance displays highlighting accessible design and connected technology, including the company’s Access Kit, developed in collaboration with the American Printing House.
    • Introduced in 2024, the Access Kit includes more than 400 tactile stickers representing 80 of the most common appliance settings. The stickers can be placed over appliance controls, allowing buttons, knobs and functions to be identified by touch.
  • The Blue Wave project continues that collaboration and will also highlight adaptable, connected appliance technologies, bringing the specialized skills of GE Appliances designers and operations employees to a partner that shares the company’s focus on creating experiences that allow independence for all.

About GE Appliances, a Haier company
At GE Appliances, a Haier company, we come together to make good things, for life. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, we are a leading U.S. manufacturer of home appliances with 15,500 team members nationwide. Our products can be found in half of all U.S. homes, and we’re proud to be rated America’s #1 Appliance Company.¹ We manufacture and sell products under the Monogram™, Café™, GE Profile™, GE®, Haier™ and Hotpoint™ brands. Our operations support 98,000 additional American jobs, and as America’s Most Invested Appliance Company, we’ve committed an industry-leading $6.5 billion to U.S. manufacturing since 2016 alone. We are deeply committed to the communities where we live and work, passionate about getting closer to our product users to understand their needs and driven by the belief that there’s always a better way.

To learn more about our company, brands, career opportunities and impact, visit geappliancesco.com or connect with us on LinkedIn.

1. OpenBrand Consumer Tracking Survey, Q1 – Q4 2024, Based on Volume of Total Majors/MO/RAC – Retail Unit 

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Media Contacts:

Julie Wood, GE Appliances, a Haier company

(502) 741-1557 or julie_Wood@geappliances.com