Amazon support center celebrates 10 years in Tri-Cities

When the Amazon customer service center first opened in Kennewick, Jill Rucker was one of several dozen employees.

Now, a decade later, Rucker is part of a team of more than 500 employees who serve customers across North America from the Canal Drive office.

Tuesday marked the 10-year anniversary of Amazon opening its support center in the Tri-Cities. The company celebrated by hosting a community event and donating $5,000 in school supplies to Kennewick’s Vista Elementary School.

“We went from a tiny site with about 50 people to being 10 times that size,” said Rucker, a content developer. “When we started, Amazon didn’t have any digital products or any of our own devices.”

The site’s senior leader, Darrin Scharffenorth, spoke to the crowd of students, city officials and employees about the growth of the site over the last decade.

The site has not only been able to thrive in Kennewick, but Amazon also has become a vital member of the business community in the area, Scharffenorth said.

Scharffenorth credited a strong partnership with the city of Kennewick for the growth, as well as the ability to recruit employees from the Tri-City area.

“We want to make sure we constantly thrive,” Scharffenorth told the Herald. “This is a great community; we have lots of talent here that we are able to bring through and really deliver for Amazon’s customers.”

Don Britain, Kennewick mayor pro tem, said he hopes the success Amazon has had in Kennewick will lead to other businesses coming to the area, which is a high priority for city officials.

“It is a great marketing tool when you have a national, worldwide company like Amazon decide to locate and expand,” he said. “We are hoping they expand even more here. It makes it easier for our economic development team to go out and recruit other national companies.”

Scharffenorth presented Vista Principal Jennifer Behrends with the school supplies, which included everything from microscopes to books.

Behrends told the crowd that the materials will be used in classrooms throughout the school, and that staff and students were overwhelmed by the generosity of Amazon.

“Just picture kids on Christmas,” she said.

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Amazon support center celebrates 10 years in Tri-Cities."