This year marks year two for The Lawson Group participating in the Granite United Way Day of Caring. The Day of Caring is a celebration of community volunteers giving one day to help one another. Volunteers provide helping hands to non-profit agencies that need assistance. Nearly 1,100 volunteers were out around Greater Manchester and Merrimack County on Wednesday, September 7, 2016. Local nonprofits across the regions had submitted ‘wish lists’ of projects to be completed – everything from painting and landscaping, to office work, and helping at equine facilities.
It was another successful year for The Lawson Group, with 26 employees volunteering on 3 different projects. We had a ton of fun, learned a lot, and helped the community! It was a win-win for everyone involved. I asked employees what they thought of this year’s event, and these are some of the responses I received:
“I really enjoyed listening to the history and culture of the Shakers from our volunteer guide. Through his history lesson I was able to understand why and how the village was there and the importance of maintaining the properties. It helped me understand why I was volunteering and that I was able to make a difference. And it was nice to work and talk with other employees outside of the office in a different setting. Overall the day was fun!”
“You get a new appreciation for how much work goes into your food before it even reaches your plate when you spend an afternoon weeding the rows and harvesting, washing, and sorting the carrots. Of course, doing it in good company makes the work so much more enjoyable!”
“I think the most interesting thing for me was living about a mile from the Shaker Village and I didn’t realize the purpose of the gardens and how immense they were. Some of the organic vegetables are sold at the roadside stand (very few), many go to the concord co-op and are used in the hot food bar (lunch), then another portion goes to a local food pantry.”
“Although we weren’t able to complete the project we were originally supposed to help with due to a little rain, we had a great time playing with the kids at the daycare. And a group of us are planning to go back to the site in a couple weeks and paint the fence we weren’t able to paint!”
We allow employees to participate in the event on company time as a part of our Community Service policy. If you want more information about the benefits of implementing a policy such as this, I wrote about it in our blog after this event last year.
