Custom Cupboards Donates Over $5000 In Cash and Needed Items to the Wichita Children’s Home
Every year during Christmas we participate in donating food, items, and money to a local charitable organization. This year we chose to give to the Wichita Children’s Home. A few facts about WCH include:
· They were Wichita’s first orphanage, founded in August of 1888
· They assist children ages 0-21 across the state of Kansas
· In 2007, they provided residential care to about 2,462 children, foster care for about 691 children, and helped 182 young adults on the streets
· Outreach counselors work from specially stocked vans to help get youth off the streets and/or receive needed services
This year we planned a variety of activities to raise money for our selected charity. We started off with a scavenger hunt. Beth Thummel, from WCH, had given us a list of items they needed for the holiday season, as well as throughout the year. She asked us to focus particularly on the older kids because the younger kids were usually the most focused-on group. The WCH helps children from birth to age 21. They offer a transitional living program for the older kids to help prepare them to live on their own. We looked at the lists, decided how many of each item we wanted to collect, and then divided the items into 33 lists to be handed out to our teams at work. Each list consisted of 9-10 items ranging from clothing to games to gift cards. To our amazement, we had overwhelming participation! We had 22 teams turn in their completed list on the first day! An amazing 67% participation… in the first day! By December 19th, our deadline, all but three of our teams had turned in their items. Our next activity was a bake sale, held December 15th. We had 13 employees volunteer to make baked goods. The items sold from .50 – 2.00 each. We had items ranging from breakfast burritos to egg rolls to cookies. This fund raiser brought in just over $300. The chili feed was next, held on December 17th. Ten employees fixed double to quadruple batches of chili and 5 other people brought in all the sides that go with chili. We sold tickets for $5 each. This brought in $460. Our final fund raiser was a real crowd pleaser. This one took an agreement for some possibly humiliating participation from all the managers. They agreed to be put on a voting ballot to get a pie in the face. We “sold” votes for $1 each. The 3 managers with the most votes in the end would get a pie to the face. Not only was this activity exciting, but it brought in an unbelievable $2900! Our top three spots brought in $448, $534, and $678! With so much participation in this event, we decided to give the employees what they deserved. Any manager that brought in over 100 votes got pied. We ended up throwing 8 pies!
When all was said and done, we had raised $3,677, and another $2000 - $3000 in items from their “needs” list. For 220 employees to come up with that kind of donation, we were extremely proud. Not to mention all of the team-building that was initiated.
Our six committee members took everything down to the Wichita Children’s Home on the afternoon of the 19th. The people there were extremely grateful to receive our gift. Beth even gave us a quick tour of the facility.
Committee members:
Michelle Ogden, Chelsea Powell, Jessica Rutz, Laura Hay, Kelly Loder, Gene Ogden
Chili Feed Vote For Todd Campaign
Vote 4 Eric Campaign Todd had $448 in votes Cindy had $534 in votes
Andy had $678 in votes The committee delivered everything to the WCH