In honor of National Disability Independence Day, the employees at Venture Solutions’ Monroe, NC facility came together to serve an overlooked group in their community.
The facility’s engagement committee schedules a number of employee activities each year, including community outreach initiatives. In the past, silent auctions of donated items had been extremely successful, so the committee planned a similar auction for the end of July and selected a recipient for the funds raised.
Manager of Quality Assurance & Safety at the Monroe facility, Ladan Scarboro, said of the decision to donate the funds to the Wolfe School, “We knew right away we want to do a school related outreach since August is a back-to-school month for this area. With July 26th being the National Disability Independence Day, we decided to pick a school that is catering to kids with special needs.”
The Wolfe School, designed for middle and high school students with disabilities, provides classrooms, self-contained and low-stimulation teaching rooms, a physical therapy suite, an independent living suite, and an occupational placement suite as part of their mission to prepare their students to be successful in a variety of living and learning environments. Their vision is to be “a place where all students are encouraged to fulfill their potential,” and they believe that everyone shares responsibility in successful education, including the students’ community.
The Venture Solutions team stepped up to this responsibility at the auction held on July 28th. Funds were raised by bidding on items such as a Keurig coffee maker, a microwave oven, movie passes, gift cards, artwork, crafts, plants, cakes, gift baskets, and more. Some of these items had been planned in advance, with photos spread around to all remote employees who wanted to participate. However, some were donated to the auction the day of by employees who wanted to personally contribute to the group’s efforts.
In total, the Monroe employees raised $820 which was used to purchase school supplies the Wolfe School requested for the coming year. In addition to the pencils, chalk, crayons, glue sticks, and other classroom supplies, the Venture Solutions production team donated some additional items from their warehouse, including extra disinfecting wipes and rolls of paper that were too depleted to use for clients’ work but would be perfect for crafts or other decoration projects at the school.
Director of Operations, Tyler Kukurza, praised his team for their generosity, saying, “This has been a great showing of all of our employees here. I personally am proud to be able to show what we have accomplished as a team.”
When the Venture Solutions team dropped off the school supplies, staff members of the Wolfe School mentioned that their school normally is forgotten but the fact that the Monroe facility employees thought of them made them hopeful. The Monroe team has remained in communication with their staff and plans to continue offering help and volunteers to support the Wolfe School in the future.
Venture Solutions is proud of the leadership shown by our team in Monroe and celebrates their support of the students at the Wolfe School. We encourage all employees to look for ways to get the Venture Solutions team involved and demonstrate such a great example of empathy, generosity, and kindness to our communities.
