By Jennifer L., Meetings and Events Manager and Guest Blogger
A piggy bank, the Coliseum and a shark “taking a bite out of hunger” are just a few of the structures built by Scottrade associates from canned goods they donated to Food Outreach, a St. Louis-based organization providing nutritional support and enhancing the quality of people living with HIV/AIDS or cancer.
When we invited associates to participate in Food Outreach’s canned food drive and structure building contest (aptly called arCANtecture), we were thrilled so many were eager to donate cans and spent time building creative structures. This “food fight” was against five other St. Louis-based financial services firms, so our competitiveness was definitely a motivator!
But in addition to the friendly competition, community involvement is a key part of Scottrade’s culture – we were founded on a belief in doing the right thing, and helping Food Outreach is a great cause.
Associate teams competed to build the best structure from the food their teams donated. The cans had to be donated in their original state, so it took a little bit of innovation and creative thinking to build the structures. There were 15 teams who participated (even the executive team built a structure), and the winner, a piggy bank built by the Scottrade Bank team, was featured last night at the celebratory dinner.
Our six St. Louis-area branch offices and our corporate headquarters donated more than 24,000 cans and other non-perishable food items to Food Outreach in just four weeks! In fact, we donated more cans than Food Outreach collected in all of 2010 – I couldn’t believe it! I was amazed at the support and eagerness of our associates.
Take a look at the photos and video of the event. The video is a cool time-lapse look at how a few of the structures came to be. This event was a great way to build teamwork and help a great cause at the same time.
Jennifer L. has been with Scottrade since 2007 and currently serves as Meetings and Events Manager.
