It’s that time of year. The time to give back, give gratitude and look ahead to what’s next. This year, we are grateful for our amazing clients that help make our business go ’round! We are also grateful to be able to give back to the community that helps us be successful.
Over Thanksgiving, we worked with our client, the organic sports drink, KRā, on a give back program with Wide Receiver Cam Meredith of the Chicago Bears. Through its “KRā For Play” initiative, KRā aims to provide resources so that underserved communities have access to proper sports equipment and programming. We selected Mercy Home for Boys & Girls as the recipient of this KRā For Play program, and boy, was it a blast!
We started with a high-energy media tour throughout Chicago and visited over 10 media outlets with the gregarious wide receiver. Then, we finished up the program the following day with an appearance at Mercy Home where Cam was joined with some local sports stars. They served the kids at Mercy Home Thanksgiving dinner and unveiled a whole lot of sports equipment courtesy of Wilson. Through our outreach on “KRāsgiving with Cam” we were able to donate over $20,000 worth of goods to Mercy Home. Media exposure was key to this programs’ success — by getting the word out about the donation opportunity and by using a credible sports spokesperson we were able to capitalize on our outreach and raise money and awareness.
We didn’t end our holiday giveback there, though. This fall, we worked with Cradles to Crayons Chicago and Goldfish Swim Schools on a winter gear drive. Cradles to Crayons collects essentials for deserving kids and then sends those items out in a bundle containing a week’s worth of clothing and materials to deserving kids in the Chicago area. Cradles to Crayons only takes items in good condition and has an amazing sorting facility to make sure the kids get exactly what they need. All 12 Chicago-area Goldfish Swim Schools were Cradles to Crayons donation centers and on December 18, we came together to participate at the “Giving Factory” (the name for the C2C sorting facility) to put together the items the kids would receive. Can you believe all that we collected?
This program was not only good for Chicago-area kids, but good for the Goldfish (and our) team. Our community volunteering exercise helped to create bonds between staff members and boost morale by doing something good for others.
We’ve had a busy holiday season, but a productive one. We look forward to continuing our growth professionally and personally in the year ahead!
Happy Holidays.
~Sara + Caitlin