Giving Back to School Backpack Drive
By Vanessa Jimenez-Browne, Land Use
At Md7, we strive to incorporate our core values into our daily work product and overall attitude.
When Thanksgiving and Christmas roll around we are keenly reminded to donate our time and money to those less fortunate. During past holidays, we have held competitive food drives, adopted families, and volunteered at various non-profits in the area. But what about the time in between? Times of need may swell around the holidays, but there are certainly communities and individuals that could use a helping hand every other day of the year. Md7 has created a Giving Back outreach committee to spearhead philanthropic efforts to last throughout the entire year.
As a member of the Giving Back outreach committee, it’s been a pleasure learning about the altruistic pursuits that each person harbors. Whether it be caring for homeless, youth, Veterans—to name a few—everyone seemed to have their passion project that drives them to give back to their community. One thing that we knew for certain, we didn’t want to just hand money to big organizations, we were looking to foster partnerships and relationships with local not-for-profits that we could more closely work with throughout the years.
For our Summer 2016 endeavor, we have chosen to participate in SAY San Diego’s Back-to-School Backpack drive. We have received 100 backpacks that need to be filled with a set list of school supplies. Md7 has held a back-to-school backpack drive in the past and it was met with great warmth and success. Not only has this project succeeded in getting Md7 employees involved, it has also presented a wonderful opportunity for their family members to take the initiative and become accountable in putting together a backpack of their own to give to someone in need. We chose SAY San Diego because it is a local organization that emphasizes addressing more than a single need or problem by providing solutions and support for youth and their families in matters relating to low-income needs, mental health, education, etc. We currently have 17 backpacks complete and are on target to complete our goal of 100 total packs by August 5th. We are encouraged by the great success with this project and are already discussing our next ventures and a larger end-of-the-year event!
