AKRON, Ohio — Summit County has declared Feb. 28, 2022 as GOJO Day to honor the leading global producer of hygiene products that has called the county home since it was created in 1946.
Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro and county council said the declaration was a way to recognize the company’s contributions not only in Summit County, but to the world as its most recognizable product, hand sanitizer, became a sought-after product at the onset of the pandemic.
The company told News 5 in October 2021 that in the company’s 75-year history, it never saw anything like the first two years of the pandemic.
The demand for the company's hand sanitizer and soaps exploded as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold across the world.
"We are a humble Akron company and the limelight is not a place that we had spent a lot of time— and frankly a place that we were all that comfortable— before the pandemic," said President and CEO Carey Jaros. "We're sort of people who do our jobs and not people who sort of seek out a lot of attention, so it was an adjustment."
Shapiro also praised the company's support of several Akron charities, including the American Heart Association, United Way of Summit and Medina and the Portage Lakes Polar Bear Jump.
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