Volunteering

Positivity...?!?! Eff that!




Good call, Antoine.

I don't do a lot of volunteering, I'll admit. However, because I'm one of those evil company CEO guys I can do other stuff with the checkbook that I enjoy from afar.

So, several of my millennial employees luv to volunteer. I underwrite their efforts. My Technicians & other employees have put together hundreds of bikes for shipment to Costa Rican kids. The bikes are shipped to CR in big shipping containers.

Every month I purchase 1,000 lbs of food & needed goods for the local food bank. 2,000 families go hungry here, it's just totally not fukkkking ok in this country & in the county as wealthy as where I live. My employees head over to the grocery store, load up our vans & deliver to the food assistance folks.

I purchase $2,000.00 worth of Girl Scout cookies every spring. I do that one myself, cause it's a total kick to see the girls start pogo'ing up & down when they realize that, no, I'm not kidding: $2,000.00 worth of cookies, please. We then drop the cookies off to our many clients, who love them of course, and my employees are on a major in-house sugar buzz for weeks.

I sponsor two Little League baseball teams. Have for 20 yrs. I sponsor the Challenger teams. These are the kids who have disabilities, Downs Syndrome, 'issues' that preclude them from being on the regular LL teams. Those kids don't get the opportunities in Life that the 'normal' kids get. Tell you what, I'll write that check forever & from beyond the grave, yep, the LL Challenger teams are in my will for funding for decades after I pass. Just seeing those kids pure joy at getting uniforms & being able to play baseball, and their parents are typically pretty strapped financially from the costs of having a kid who needs more of everything just to make it, man, lemme tell you what. Tears to the eyes every time. I luv being able to help out.

And the doggos. I sponsor our local shelter via one of my fellow dog-crazed employees. The walks, the adoption events, the funding needs, whatever they need. That's really important.

I'm pretty low-key about it all. Don't believe in publicizing it or making a big deal out of it. Most of these places don't even know my name. That's the way I like it just fine.

 

I coordinate DoD's Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) charity pledge drive for our organization each year.

 

I give a ton of shit to good will.

That counts right?

 

Spend a two hours every Tuesday night at the El Sol center here in town teaching English and beach clean up the first Saturday of every month. Donate to Surfrider, WWF and Humane Society annually.

 

Gracias, senor. My employees are good folks who work very hard. It's tremendous to see so many of them are part of The American Way >> community.

 

Yank, my hat is off to you Sir. No ball rubbing intended when I say you are someone I admire and appreciate being out there. SUCH the anti - “hooray for me” mind set.

+10

 

Volunteer soccer coach, Philly Area Toys for Tots motorcycle run. Trout Unlimited.
Gary Sinise Wounded Veterans charity.

 

Not totally selfless. It's the best way for me to keep fluent in Spanish and French, so it's a win win for everyone.

 

As a chef, the majority of the volunteering I do is centered around feeding the hungry.
Right now the focus is on our neighbors to the east of us.
I take a few of the staff and do a lot of work with a local group that feeds 3400 kids in the two counties that are deemed homeless. I would never have imagined there are close to 6000 kids in this area that are classified as homeless. They aren't on the corner with a cardboard sign. They bounce from house to house, friend to relative, etc. Most go to school and that shit meal is all they eat that day. We donate a ton products with the hotels backing, and set time twice a week to do cooking classes for a rotating group of theses kids. They have to keep grades up, attendance and behavior to be eligible through their school to attend. We've done fundraisers and drives that the hotel matches to boost the groups ability to provide year round meals for these kids. The community support for this group awesome. Out of all of the charity and volunteering I get to do, this one is my favorite only because I get to experience its impact first hand. I enjoy the others and like giving my time to raise money, but its cool to interact and show these kids that have been dealt a shitty hand that if they have the desire and motivation, they have the opportunity at a successful career without college, on top of learning how to feed and take care of themselves, and hopefully not be dependent on the gov't teet
With the military being such a huge part of this area, some of the other Chefs and I put together food events to help Fisher House, and Wounded Warrior. We've got a really good group of locals that are self-made and deep pocketed, and are very charitable. Because of them, we've been able to write some very sizable checks for these groups.
Lots of events to raise money for a range of organizations from Shelter for Abused Women and Children, St. Judes, Habitat for Humanity, local Children's Autism Center, and a few others.
Non-food related, twice a month I do work with the Shiners and Masons as they do very good work for the community. Plus, I can go and just be me helping people, not the Chef in a jacket

 

Panhandler: wow. Kudos & major props.

Biggsy: gracias

 

Was surfing TPTSNBN with gf a couple Thanksgivings ago. We surfed the OSV, then went looking for something to eat. Not a lot open on turkey day, of course.

Oh, wait, look, the Greene Turtle is open, WestOC. We see people coming out of the place, dozens of people, families, with bags of takeout food. We park & walk in & a bunch of folks in their 20's, very friendly, say what sort of food are you in need of? It literally took a minute to sink in. I was stunned. How could so many people be going hungry in such an area where the wealth abounds all around?

We mumbled a few words of cluelessness & sort of stumbled out of there.

For the past several years there's this huge billboard on 50 going west from the ocean. Says 'it's tough to enjoy summer when you're hungry.' Picture of a kid. Always hits me in the heart. Again, the implications of massive hunger in our nation of wealth wtf

Anyways, another run-on post, sorry. Me & my brother came up poor, really poor. I know what it's like to go to bed hungry & not cause of bad behavior. Cause there's nothing to eat. So, maybe that's why this is an issue very dear to me.

Anyways, it's very inspiring to read youse guys very cool unsung hard work & efforts.
Great treade Antoine.

 

i volunteer coached girls basketball for a couple of years.

 

Surfrider Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project are my main two, also Reef Relief (and a random panhandler now and then)
My wife is active with the PBC Food Project
We both do Toys for Tots during the holidays - usually a big bag of toys donated during the boat parade.

Hats off to any body trying to make a positive impact one random act of kindness at a time.

Thanks Antoine for this treadde, it offers me a personal challenge to step it up a bit during the approaching holiday season, and help those less fortunate, and especially those families suffering from the devastation of Michael. Light always shines!!!