LIV North: Donates Outdated Service Vehicles to Homeless Cars
When 14 of LIV North’s service vehicles commercial lives came to an end the leadership team knew they had a useful purpose for someone.
So the leadership team at LIV North coordinated a donation to Homeless Cars, a Canadian charitable foundation that accepts used vehicles and donates the proceeds of their sale to food banks and local food shelters.
Read morePoolman and All Florida Pools Provide Necessities to Homeless Citizens
During the recent holiday season, team members at Poolman and All Florida Pools came up with a novel way to make a difference for homeless members of their communities. Technicians in Florida, Phoenix, Tucson, San Diego, Texas and Las Vegas were given bags and backpacks containing essential supplies including personal hygiene items, socks, water and certain proteins for food. During their routes, they distributed these bags to homeless community members.“I have always believed that it is better to Give… Give… Give… before you Get… Get… Get…! Having served on a board that serves the homeless population, I gained first hand knowledge of the critical state that this group lives in on a day-to-day basis,” said President, Residential Aquatics, Vic Valentine. “These are not just homeless people; they are sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers. What a better idea than to rally the troops and not only give to individuals in need, but also serve together for a greater purpose than ourselves. Serving the homeless is a great life lesson in humility as well!”In total, 672 bags were distributed, making our homeless community members more comfortable and showing them that people care about their wellbeing.
TLS: Holiday “Cariboulation” Food Drive Exceeds Goals
TLS recently concluded its Caring Celebration, or “Holiday Cariboulation,” to collect food for local food banks.
The team TRIPLED its goal of donating 500 items — collecting 2442 food items/dollar donations for local food banks. TLS generously matched that number and is donating $2,442 to a local food bank. When it came time to deliver the items, Santa himself, joined by his favorite “reindog,” helped distribute the donated food.
We’d like to thank everyone for their participation in this great cause. Now more than ever food banks need support and this is a wonderful way to #FirstServeOthers.
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California Closets: Supporting Men of Valor and Helping Shape Better Futures
L-R: Nick Aprile, Master Installer; Alex Martinez, Shop Forman (and installer); Tom Maline, Director of Operations
Following up on its 2018 involvement with Nashville-based Men of Valor’s Phase 1 housing build, California Closets of Tennessee recently completed the installation of 33 more closets in the Phase 2 building, Valor Ridge. This brings its total contribution to 93 new closets — with all materials and labor given free of charge.
The new residential spaces at Valor Ridge will provide housing for participants in Men of Valor’s year-long prison aftercare and re-entry program. The recidivism rate (prisoners rearrested after release) in Tennessee is 51 percent. The recidivism rate for graduates of the Men of Valor program is less than 10 percent.
“We are excited to continue to support the life-changing work of Men of Valor,” says CCTN Owner Kurt Schusterman. “California Closets of Tennessee is committed to looking for ways to give back to others who are making an impact in our community. Clearly, the Men of Valor team is doing just that. This was a team effort and is a great example of living out our company values.”
Additionally, Kurt and his team were thrilled to get the support of CC vendors to help make this possible, including DixiePly for wood product, Valendrawers for the drawers, Salice for the runners, and TAG hardware for poles and other hardware.
“As a faith-based nonprofit we are always grateful for donations,” said David Miller, Men of Valor’s Development Director. “We appreciate California Closets of Tennessee once again stepping forward to support our mission by donating closets for the second phase of housing at our Valor Ridge community.”
CertaPro: Company Painter Provides Food and Necessities to Those in Need in El Salvador
We love sharing stories of how our team members find their own Social Purpose. Efrain Montoya, a painter with CertaPro in Thousand Oaks, CA, wanted to help those in need in El Salvador. Efrain, whose brother lives there, has been collecting monetary donations here in the United States and and sending the money to his brother in El Salvador. His brother uses the money to buy groceries and other essentials for those in need. Many of the people they help are extremely impoverished, living in shacks in rural areas with no easy access or means to obtain food or other supplies.
Kudos to Efrain and his brother for identifying a way they can help people and putting together a plan to make a difference in their lives.
Many of the supply deliveries have been recorded, and can be viewed below.
California Closets: Oregon Team Donates 1,278 Pairs of Shoes for Soles4Soles
“Something as simple as a pair of shoes can make a big difference.”
People living in poverty want better lives but many lack opportunity. Soles4Souls turns unwanted shoes and clothing into hope, by keeping them from going to waste and putting them to good use – providing relief, creating jobs, and empowering people to break the cycle of poverty.
Oregon General Manager, Nicole Kypreos, and her team recently collected and donated 1,278 shoes during their annual Soles4Souls shoe drive, that wrapped up in January.
Shoes translate to basic essentials for families in need in the developing world. The shoes donated benefit Soles4Souls’ international micro-enterprise program, which offers a powerful and sustainable path for people to create small businesses, selling shoes to lift themselves and their families out of poverty.
The shoes donated by the Oregon team will create enough income to provide a full year of food, shelter, and education for a family in need. What a powerful way to collaborate to help design better lives.
Thank you to Nicole Kypreos and her entire team for helping to make such a positive difference in the lives of these families in need.
California Closets: Commitments to Excellence and Sustainability Go Hand-in-Hand
When people think of California Closets, impeccable craftsmanship, exceptional design and high-quality materials often come to mind. Maintaining its reputation for excellence is a priority shared by everyone throughout the organization. One of the ways the company does that is by ensuring the materials used in its installations are free of flaws and defects.
Kelly Gray, Purchasing Manager
When Kelly Gray, an Arizona-based purchasing manager for California Closets, received a material shipment this past December, she immediately identified an issue. Although the structure and base of the material core was good, a large area on the surface had displeasing spotting which made it unusable for California Closets.
The supplier refunded the cost of the material but Kelly’s team was faced with the dilemma of what to do with it. Disposing of it would not only be costly, it would also be in conflict with the company’s commitment to support sustainability. After some brainstorming, Kelly’s team identified two charitable organizations that would be able to use the material: Habitat for Humanity and Stardust.
“We have been collaborating as a team to find ways to support sustainability and the community, and this accomplished both targets. The product we contributed will essentially help to ‘design better lives’ and aligns our brand with other organizations who share our values,” said Kelly.
Habitat for Humanity brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope. They envision a world where everyone has a decent place to live, and are dedicated to building, renovating, and repairing simple, decent, and affordable homes for families of modest means. Gifts from individuals, companies, and faith groups provide the necessary funding needed to support the mission of Habitat for Humanity.
Stardust is a non-profit organization in Arizona that believes that deconstruction and reuse policies and practices can drive economic prosperity, while avoiding unnecessary waste. Stardust operates two reuse centers for home improvement, which sell gently-used, salvaged, and surplus building materials at affordable prices. Additionally, Stardust provides deconstruction services that salvage building materials, diverts waste from landfills, and supports sustainability in the community.
Kelly’s team donated more than 300 boards to both organizations, an inventory valued at $10,000-$12,000!
All Florida Pools: Toy Drive Makes a Big Splash
Kudos to the team at All Florida Pools for organizing a very successful toy drive in support of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. The team collected more than 100 toys to brighten the holidays for deserving children in the local community. In addition to collecting toys, the team set up a fundraising page and will match all toy and cash donations received at the end of December.
During the months of October, November and December, All Florida Pools set up a collection box in its retail location for customers and staff members to use for their donations. This was a wonderful way to bring the team together and #FirstServeOthers.
Super Restoration: Working Together to Feed 307 Starving Children for an Entire Year
It was all hands on deck on Saturday, November 23, 2019 when more than 528 volunteers came together to pack 112,104 meals to feed 307 starving children throughout the world for an entire year!
In addition to the food packed, the team raised more than $30,000 to help fund the noble work of Feed My Starving Children.
“Dear Super Restoration team – THANK YOU! You are all such champions for putting on this event for your community,” said Bethany Durst, Feed My Starving Children eemployee. “It was wonderful serving with you all. This was one of the most efficient packs I’ve done because of your hard prep work. I hope our paths cross again soon!”
This event is meaningful to so many at Super Restoration who demonstrate a commitment to #FirstServeOthers through many activities throughout the year.
“This was my second year coordinating the Feed My Starving Children Event to be hosted at Super Restoration. I began working on this year’s event in July 2019. This year, I was able to create and organize more efficiently because I had experience under my belt. It was so amazing to see a lot of hard work and effort come together on the event day,” said Jamie O’Camb, executive assistant to Rene Vargas. ‘When I saw all of the volunteers in our warehouse, it made me so proud to be part of a company that sees the value in giving back to our community. It was such a blessing to meet all of the genuine people and families who took time out of their weekend to help people around the world. Once again, this event made such an impact on me and will be something I continue to support and work on for the years to come!”
Congrats to the Super Restoration team on an incredibly successful and meaningful event!
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Paul Davis: Supporting Local Food Pantries through a Creative CAN Challenge Food Drive
Donation drives are a popular and effective way to collect much-needed food for area food banks, but if you really want to engage your team members and make your food drive something everyone will be talking about, give them an added challenge to see what can be built with the donated items. That’s exactly what the creative Social Purpose Champions at Paul Davis did, and the results were incredible!
Building for Prizes & Bragging Rights
As you’ll see from the pictures in this post, team members took the challenge seriously and unleashed their creativity building fabulous structures out of donated canned goods. Photos of the structures were shared with the Paul Davis network and prizes were awarded for the locations with the Most Votes and the Most Cans.
All food collected was donated to local and human food pantries, many of which are in great need during summer months. Lots of companies organize food drives during the holiday season, which is helpful, but by the time summer rolls around, many food banks are faced with empty shelves.
 Hunger Bites won the award for Most Votes |
 More than 1,180 cans were used to build the Animal House structure |
A Fun Challenge with a Big Impact
In addition to highly coveted bragging rights, the LLCO Animal House structure won in the Most Cans category with 1,188 cans, and Hunger Bites won Most Votes. Some offices took the challenge even further by incorporating other fun team building events including company BBQs and bowling outings. Collectively the challenge netted more than 3,100 cans of food!
“Words cannot express my gratitude, respect, and appreciation to everyone involved in this event,” said Quality Assurance Analyst Waleska Gonzalez. “Helping others when they need it the most is a cause I keep close to my heart and I am always looking for an opportunity to create awareness. I was happy to see the passion and commitment from my PD family.”
 The PDR Jacksonville team created a unique cat structure using their cans |
 The team behind the Strike Out Hunger display continued their theme with an employee bowling party |