By Petrena Ferguson, Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Proud, humbled, grateful, inspired. These are just a few of the many emotions I experienced being a part of and seeing all of special ways in which the Ribbon team around the world demonstrated “who we are” during our first annual Ribbon Day Global Day of Service. Proud to be a small part of such a giving and caring group of people. Humbled by all of the generosity that Ribbon team members in virtually every corner of the world showed. Grateful that they shared their experiences with me and other team members through social media, conversations and email. Inspired by the true selflessness of my co-workers all over the world. It was truly a day unlike any other for me and I sincerely hope that is the case for the rest of the Ribbon team.
Our culture, our kindness and the love that we have for our communities were on full display through generous acts and activities that Ribbon team members around the world participated in on Friday, October 26th. In total, 24 Ribbon offices and locations across 16 countries and in every continent assisted more than 50 charities, non-profits and community organizations and this figure does not include the countless individual activities that our remote team members participated in.
Ribbon employees from our senior leadership team on down participated in activities ranging from spending time with the elderly and underprivileged, to clearing trees in forests, to sorting food and clothing for local non-profits, to making winter blankets and quilts for the needy, to preparing meals at soup kitchens, to donating musical instruments and clothes to local school kids and numerous more volunteer activities.
Examples ranged from our CEO, Fritz Hobbs, who helped give a local community garden a “facelift” by moving mulch, planting and other activities; to our team members in Maidenhead, who spent the day improving a local school (repairing and painting fences, preparing gardens for the winter and painting classrooms); to our entire team in Singapore, who spent the morning preparing thousands of lunches at a local soup kitchen that distributes food to more than 40 locations daily; to our team in Brazil, who spent the day volunteering at a home for the elderly.
Ribbon employees around the world spent the day showing the true meaning of giving back. I cannot tell you how many emails and messages that I have received from co-workers in every global region who expressed how much fun they had and what Ribbon Day meant to them.
“One of our team members spent Ribbon Day cleaning up his local town as an individual activity. While he was cleaning, an elderly woman asked him why he was cleaning up and he explained to her the concept of Ribbon Day. She was so impressed that she gave him a bottle of tea. He made her happy; she made him even happier and now he feels an even stronger bond to his local community.”
“Our office is small and only consists of a group of four. We donated 139 T-shirts and jackets to Crossroads and helped them with sorting and packing clothing for shipping to people in need.”
“The Freehold US team had a great time cleaning Seven Presidents Beach in Long Branch, New Jersey. Happy that Ribbon could represent Clean the Ocean Drive towards our better future!
“Never before have so many men stood around discussing ladies fashion and I think that we have set the styles of clothes that will soon appear in many Swindon charity shops ☺. The Swindon team had a great time helping out, and are already looking forward to next year. It also turned out to be a great team building exercise.”
“As Deepavali is just around the corner, in Kuala Lumpur, we are preparing gifts and spent time with local under privileged children in our community.”
“The Sydney team worked alongside adults with disabilities/special needs on a packaging line for supermarket displays. It was a full day of service. House With No Steps is a charity that does wonderful work helping people with disabilities find meaningful opportunities and freedom in their lives. House With No Steps’ core values are: Empowerment, Respect, Inclusion, Commitment and Achievement. This year we packed Windex display cartons for Costco. For each carton House With No Steps completes they receive $10. Each pallet has 30 cartons. We completed 9 pallets before running out of stock $2,700!”
“In Madrid, we helped in a “Community Kitchen” managed by the Missionaries of Charity – Mother Teresa Of Calcuta. They provide daily meals for 300 people, and we helped them clean pots and pans, gas stoves, kitchen floors and walls, tables…as well as served the Friday lunch in their dining room.”
“In Bangalore, India we organized the “Gift a smile” initiative, where the team gathered wishes from 200 underprivileged kids from three NGOs and fulfilled their wishes. We also celebrated Ribbon Day with 40 kids from these NGOs at the Ribbon Bangalore campus. We are also supporting these NGOs by providing them with basic amenities and necessities.”
“The Prague office ran in a 5 kilometer race to raise money for a charity that funds research in helping find cures for testicular and breast cancer.”
Again, these are just a few of the numerous emails that I have received from team members discussing how Ribbon Day impacted them and their local communities. I could not be prouder, more humbled, grateful for or inspired by the wonderful team members I get to work with not only on this very special day, but on a daily basis throughout the year. In addition to all of our great volunteers around the world,
I also want to personally thank our many Ribbon Connect team members around the world and the rest of our Human Resources partners, especially Marybeth Smith and Carlos Salas, for taking the lead in helping organize and coordinate local events. Without your tireless efforts, Ribbon Day would not have been possible.
Enjoy this photo album that includes our Ribbon Day activities from around the world!
