PASCAGOULA, Miss., May 21, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Robin Poppenhouse, an operations administration generalist at Huntington Ingalls Industries' (NYSE:HII) Ingalls Shipbuilding division, has been elected to the board of directors for Special Olympics Mississippi. She will replace former Ingalls Shipbuilding president Irwin F. Edenzon, who will step down from the board after the Special Olympics 2014 USA Games, which will take place June 14-21 in New Jersey.
"When I first volunteered for the Special Olympics Summer Games in 2009," Poppenhouse said, "I immediately fell in love with all of the people associated with the organization and the dedication they had to these athletes. It is now a driven passion of mine to make this a special weekend. I have a lot of help from the many shipyard volunteers, and I am thrilled to represent their hard work on the board of directors."
Poppenhouse is one of more than 100 Ingalls employees who volunteer every year for Special Olympics Mississippi events. The shipyard also recently presented a $25,000 check to Special Olympics to offset travel expenses for Mississippi athletes participating in the national games.
"Ingalls Shipbuilding provides us more volunteers to the Mississippi Special Olympic Games than any other company in Mississippi, and we definitely appreciate all of their participation," said Helen Parish, CEO and president of Special Olympics Mississippi. "We welcome Robin to our board of directors. Her leadership in coordinating the volunteers and the donation effort for our athletes helps us provide meaningful awards and makes it a very special experience for the athletes."
The mission of Special Olympics is to provide year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for all children and adults with intellectual disabilities, giving them continuing opportunities to develop physical fitness, demonstrate courage, experience joy and participate in the sharing of gifts, skills and friendship with their families, other Special Olympics Athletes and their community.
About Huntington Ingalls Industries
Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear and non-nuclear ships for the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard and provides after-market services for military ships around the globe. For more than a century, HII has built more ships in more ship classes than any other U.S. naval shipbuilder at its Newport News Shipbuilding and Ingalls Shipbuilding divisions. Employing more than 38,000 in Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana and California, HII also provides a wide variety of products and services to the commercial energy industry and other government customers, including the Department of Energy. For more information, visit:
- HII on the web: hii.com
- HII on Facebook: facebook.com/TeamHII
- HII on Twitter: twitter.com/WeAreHII
- HII on Instagram: instagram.com/WeAreHII
