The Good Neighbor Committee plans volunteer events for Help/Systems employees. The events help our neighbors in the community and build our skills as a team through helpful hands-on work. Each employee receives one day off per year to work on Good Neighbor events.
When planning events, the Good Neighbors select a variety of organizations to help, and a variety of ways to help them.
Here are some of the events we've helped to support:
- TreeHouse—A local organization that is near and dear to our hearts. TreeHouse’s mission is to bring hope to hurting youth and families leading to life transformation. Through Penny Wars and other fundraisers, we are now sponsoring a van that transports teens to TreeHouse-sponsored programs throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Employees have donated time, money, and gifts to these promising teens.
- United Way annual fundraiser—This three-day event always raises thousands of dollars for our local agencies and includes fun events such as Turkey Bingo, chili cook-off, and a very popular silent auction.
- We Bought a Truck!—Through wienie kart sales, charitable giving, and weekly walking, we raised above and beyond what the Emergency Foodshelf Network needs to fund a truck delivery full of fresh fruits and vegetables to the greater Minneapolis area!
- Food Bank of Northern Nevada—This organization provides food for the Reno public schools. We raised $300 to donate to this cause, and our coworkers in the Reno office also volunteered at the warehouse.
- Peace House Africa—This US-based, nonprofit organization works in Tanzania, East Africa to provide a unique entrepreneurial education to Tanzania’s AIDS orphans and vulnerable children. Help/Systems established a student sponsorship program at Peace House Secondary School, and for each internal sales milestone, we sponsored a student who went on to be members of the first ever graduating class of 2011.
As always, we look forward to new opportunities to help our neighbors in the coming year. Don't forget to pause and count your blessings!