We’re Thankful & Giving Back
By on November 22, 2017
Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!
In honor of the season of giving thanks, we wanted to take a moment and talk about one of our core values, Giving Back.
Here at Qualtrax, we are thankful for so much: our amazing team, fantastic customers, great community, and so much more… And because of who we are, we can’t let our gratitude stop there.
Every year we pride ourselves on helping as many people as we can by Giving Back. Whether it’s to the local community of Blacksburg or to our larger community of the United States and the rest of the world, we pay all of that generosity and kindness that we have received and love seeing every day, back into the world every chance we get.
With this being the season of being thankful, we thought it would be nice to take a moment and mention all of the times we have shown how thankful we are of our community at large throughout these most recent months, and hopefully introduce you to some great charities, or activities that you too can get involved in to Give Thanks Back to your community.
Our biggest charity focus this year has been hurricane relief since unfortunately, there have been several devastating hurricanes this year in our communities. Meanwhile, we wanted to find an impactful way to give support to those who had been hit the hardest by these events. That’s when we discovered the All Hands charity and decided to raise money in support of their hurricane relief efforts.
We wanted to get the entire Qualtrax community, the company as well as our customers, involved in the fundraising. Therefore, during the Qualtrax User Conference, we had a casino night event when everyone would be together. At the event, anytime someone met certain requirements at the different tables (hit a 21 in Black Jack, the roulette wheel landed on 7, etc.) then the dealer would raise a flag, signaling for us to add a tally to the list. At the end of the night, we counted up over 80 wins at the various stations, meaning Qualtrax would donate $750 to All Hands hurricane relief.
At the same time, we were also having a clothing and money drive at the office. Katie Berkel, one of our employees from Texas, helped us connect with the University of Houston and find a community in the area that had been hit near the university where we could directly donate much-needed clothes and supplies. Qualtrax even matched any financial donations, allowing us to buy $250 worth of supplies for those in need, on top of what was already donated.
However, not all of our giving back is always quite so large-scaled. Sometimes we give back in smaller ways.
For instance, a small group of employees recently put together a website for a local cat shelter, helping the shelter find forever homes for local felines. Several of our employees also donate blood regularly, something that isn’t quite as event specific but is a much-needed donation all the same.
In October, we hosted a local cornhole tournament, inviting some other local companies to participate, and raised $420 for the Virginia Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. It was a few dollars to enter a team into the tournament, and we ended up having some stiff competition, not just between Qualtrax employees, but from other companies as well. Luckily, two Qualtrax employees, Kevin Poston and Luke Mazzu, ended up taking home gold in the tournament, defending our home turf. It was a great way to help an amazing charity while having some fun at the same time.
Even now, we are running a food drive and competing in a gingerbread decorating competition, the proceeds of which are going to Micah’s Backpack, a local charity that provides children with food to eat on weekends and holidays or anytime they aren’t in school to receive breakfast and lunch.
We also have some more charities planned for December, such as the Christiansburg Christmas Store, which we’ve loved working at every year.
Giving Back is just our way of showing how thankful we are for all we have.
We look forward to seeing you again soon!
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