A Season for Giving

 By Rupa Patel, Senior Account Executive

The holidays mean different things to different people. While the season’s religious ties aren’t something everyone can relate to, there are other overarching sentiments that strike a chord within us all, regardless of religion, ethnicity or background.

My family, for example, doesn’t celebrate the “traditional” Christmas that many others do, but we still use the time to gather and spend time with one another. So, for some the holidays represent a time to be with loved ones. For others, the holidays are a time to celebrate and share wishes for a happy and healthy year ahead. Then there are those who see this as a time to reflect and make it a season of giving.

It’s that last sentiment in particular that makes this holiday season a special one for the team members in Edelman’s Dallas office. Earlier this year, Edelman introduced a program allowing each local office to support a charity or cause of its choice. Jumping on the opportunity, Dallas began working with an organization called Family Gateway and this December we will put the finishing touches on our project with the group.

Across the country, families from different socio-economic groups are living with friends and relatives, in their cars or on the street as a result of a lost job, an unexpected illness or injury, a family tragedy or some other circumstances. Family Gateway provides families such as these with services designed to restore dignity and stability, including employment and financial training classes, tutoring services for children, and even temporary housing. In short, Family Gateway creates the type of self-sufficiency and confidence that can break the cycle of generational homelessness.

For our part, Edelman Dallas “adopted” a Family Gateway apartment in need of renovation. The families who move into these apartments often come in with nothing more than a small grocery bag of personal items or an extra change of clothes, so we wanted to make sure our contribution was more than a few coats of paint.

While navigating through travel schedules, client meetings and other responsibilities was no easy task, our office banded together to begin revitalizing the apartment bit by bit. With task force teams assigned to each room of the apartment, we started planning what needed to be purchased, what needed to be repaired, what pieces of furniture and decorations we already had available and who had enough hand-eye coordination to stand on a ladder and paint without falling or dripping paint over everyone underneath them (which turned out to be no one). We’re in the home stretch now, coordinating one last deep cleaning for the apartment and closing with a furnishing frenzy.

While confidence in our home improvement skills has been shaken to some degree (you’d be surprised at how easy it is to get paint in your hair and how difficult it is to get it out), the confidence we have in our ability to complete a task like this is stronger than ever. Knowing that our small contribution to the wonderful work Family Gateway does could get a local family a new home by Christmas is a surreal thought, but we are determined to do everything in our power to make it happen.

This experience has reminded us that giving back isn’t something that can only happen around the holidays. If we all put in just a little bit of time throughout the year, imagine the changes we can create and the good we can do. Whether alone or with friends, co-workers or family members, get involved and find a cause that speaks to you. There are thousands of organizations out there that would be grateful for even an hour of your time. Our office is ready to spread the goodwill in 2012 – what about you?