GIVE is an initiative here at Gibson that serves as a foundation for our charitable giving, providing an outlet to support our strong tradition of community engagement. In the future it will be more complete by encompassing all our efforts with colleagues, clients, and the community through service, wellness and safety, and growth initiatives. GIVE is the name we chose a while back because it aligns our mission ‘Protect What Matters Most’ to GIVE What Matters Most.
GIVE didn’t happen by accident. We have purposely poured a lot of time into our community support strategy over the past few years. Ultimately, as many companies have done, we’ve gone in the direction of putting a significant portion of our budget with one cause in order to have greater impact vs. allocating smaller portions with a large number of organizations. By now, it’s probably no secret, at least in the communities where we have offices (South Bend, Plymouth, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis), that we’ve chosen to put our time, talent, and treasure with the Boys & Girls Clubs.
We chose Boys & Girls Clubs for a number of reasons. Most importantly because their mission aligns beautifully with ours. They serve a population and age bracket that will have an enormous impact on protecting the future of the communities and clients we serve.
Our goals with the Boys & Girls Club are to:
- Support their mission of providing kids with a safe place to learn and grow,
- Provide engagement opportunities for our employees, and
- Create relevant connections between us, the Club, and our stakeholders.
Our South Bend office and the Boys & Girls Club of St. Joseph County have the most amount of traction. It’s because we have our largest office connected to one of the best Clubs in the state. From this connection we have regular volunteers, board members, and special initiatives like the Great Big Kid competition, Lights On, and hosting an annual holiday party complete with a professional Santa! (Yes he actually has ice packs inside his jacket to keep the temperature down.)
So, on Wednesday, a group of us donned elf hats and went to work at the O.C. Carmichael, Jr. Youth Center. We had a number of food and activity stations including cookie decorating, photo booth, ornament decorating, face painting, bean bags toss, scooter races, balloons, and of course a bounce house. We had Santa back again and a number of gifts for the kids.
I asked some of the kids what they liked best:
- Elaina said the bounce house and face paint. “It looks cool!” She had a good discussion with Santa about the tennis shoes with heels she saw at JC Penney’s. “He said he would probably get them for me.”
- Aiden told me he was “throwing smoke!” He was referring to bean bag throwing contest. We actually had to move him back from the line about six feet. “I throw this really hard, don’t I?” he exclaimed in what was more of a matter of fact statement versus a question.
- Lilly liked the scooter races and jumping in the bounce house. She only gets a party like this “once a year”.
- Angel liked the photo decoration best “because now I have a present for my mom.”
- Olivia enjoyed the bean bag toss “because I like the sounds the beans make when it lands.”
- Flavi loved her princess balloon. She hopes Santa brings her new doll clothes for her American Girl doll. “And I want a unicorn. A real one!”
- Ashley liked her Hello Kitty balloon. “I also liked cookie decorating but I ate them all! I want to get my Mom an oven so we can do cookies at home. She doesn’t have one.”
- Manny was a big help getting the photo booth set up. “I like to help! I’m even on the recycling team.”
- Elly loved the ornament decorating and hopes to “have a tree someday to put it on”.
- Max liked the bounce house “because you get to crawl through stuff.”
- Sha’talya loved the bounce house “and everything”. She’s not sure what she’ll be getting for Christmas “but my tee-tee (auntie) said she would get me something.”
- Larry liked all the fun stuff. He hopes he gets books for Christmas. He told me he likes “fiction and animal stories.”
- Elizabeth liked the scooters and wants a “real guinea pig” for Christmas.
- Dooley loved racing the other kids through the bounce house. “I won all the times I went in there!” I have no doubt given how sweaty his hair was.
- Axel liked everything here, “especially all the people since my family doesn’t like other people coming over to our house for Christmas.”
Sounds like they had a great time, doesn’t it? But I’m pretty sure that the gifts my colleagues at Gibson provided paled in comparison to what the kids gave us.
“To be around their enthusiasm, their smiling faces, and to see the fun they were having just melted me!” exclaimed Jerry Scott. “I’m so glad to be here.”
Sarah Aldape loved how many of the kids remembered her from the Lights Out event we hosted in October. “It struck me that it really doesn't take much effort on our part to make a difference to them,” she said. “Many of the kids said they were giving the crafts they made as gifts. They were so excited. I love their generosity!”
One of our newest employees and a recent college graduate, Andrew Graman, said, “This reminds me of doing philanthropy while in school. You forget that it’s just the simple things that make kids happy.”
Lauren, a team program coordinator at the Club shared her thoughts, “I think this event means everything to many of these kids. The holiday season is tough for most of our families. This – tonight – might literally be “it” for them. We provide them with a safe place after school, but tonight it was safe and extra fun. Smiling faces and full stomachs!”
What’s The Risk?
It’s too easy to get caught up in the modern material hype of the Season. We worry about shopping, presents, and parties. Instead, we all need to take a little time to focus on what we have to GIVE to others. Thank you Boys & Girls Club kids for giving all of us at Gibson a little bit of what matters most!
