Blog, Planned Cares May 3, 2018 Planned Companies Service Day 2018 Every year, Planned Companies associates across all of the regions we service come together to donate time and effort in helping great causes all throughout the US. Here are our stories from each of our locations and how each team member is making a difference in the world. April 19th – Mid-Atlantic Region (based in Alexandria, VA) Here is a message from Reuel Williams, our VP of Operations for Mid-Atlantic sharing how their day went. “Mid-Atlantic Team, I wanted to express my appreciation and admiration for you all. You’re an awesome group of people and I’m humbled and proud to have the privilege to work alongside you all. Thank you so much for your open hands and hearts today during our service day. I truly believe that the sacrifices we made and the work we performed at the Ronald McDonald House today was impactful and made a true difference. We really showed them what Planned is all about. The Planned Way shined bright today.” April 25th – San Francisco Region Here’s what was shared by our Director of Business Development for San Francisco, John Fahmy. “Today the team had an awesome day at Covenant House in Oakland CA. Covenant House helps children between the ages of 18-24 who are homeless and help them get back on their feet. This is often after leaving the foster care program at 18. They help with job assistance, career counseling, budgeting and health assistance. They house 40 youth and have a wellness center that is open daily from 9 AM to 2 PM for any youth that needs help or a place to be safe. Our team provided window cleaning (inside and out), carpet cleaning of the library and hallways, and general cleaning of common areas. We also provided pizza for the youth and staff. We enjoyed a nice lunch and got to chat with some of the youth and played basketball after. I will be honest, Planned CA definitely needs to work on their basketball skills. Overall, a great day and humbling experience.” April 26th – Atlanta Region Updates from JJ Chaves, our VP of Sales and Operations for Atlanta “I’m super excited to be participating WITH MY HOURLY ASSOCIATES! We will be working as Grocery Floor Assistants at the Atlanta Community Food Bank from 7:30am to 10:30am. I’m proud to involve my team here in Atlanta and their willingness to participate in this important initiative.” April 26th – Northeast Region (including NJ, NY, CT, MA) For our Northeast Region, the team gathered in Parsippany, NJ, for a team building activity that led to donations to the Innerfaith Food Pantry. This food bank is a community of neighbors helping neighbors who are committed to ending hunger and supporting self-sufficiency. The Planned group was split into multiple teams and were instructed to build a mini golf course made from canned and boxed food. After they completed this task, they had to visit each of the mini golf courses that other teams have built and had to putt a hole-in-one for each course. They then voted on who’s course was the most creatively built. Later, we helped box up all of the food while the local food bank pulled up with trucks to take donated food back to their organization to be shipped and distributed to locations that they support. You can learn more about the Innerfaith Food Pantry at http://mcifp.org/ “Proud of the spirit and difference that the Planned team made last week. Our time and energy was well spent both giving back to the community while getting to enhance the communication and collaboration of our team. When you give, you get.” – Rob Francis, President & CEO We hope that these Service Day stories encourage everyone to continue to give back, whether its within your organization or a personal effort! #PlannedCares More photos at www.facebook.com/plannedcompanies