I’m ashamed to admit that I have never made community service one of my priorities. Life is busy enough! I have worked for S&T Bank for over 20 years and I am fortunate enough to work for a company that values giving back to others. They value it so much that they have made it one of their top ten priorities. They even pay us if we take a day off work to volunteer!
A little over a year ago, I received an email to sit in on a committee to help fund the PowerPack program of Indiana. My initial reaction was that it was a bad year for me to help. I had a million things going on in my life and I wasn’t sure how I would fit one more thing into my crazy schedule. But…since it was to help children, I decided to go see what it was about.
I was running late to the first meeting and didn’t have time for breakfast. As I sat down at the conference room table, I tried to ignore my hunger pains. I listened to how children right here in our own community didn’t have food during the weekend…I realized how lucky I was. I also realized what a baby I was being, I decided I was in.
One of my tasks was to meet with pizza vendors to see if they would participate in the inaugural “Best Slice of Indiana”. As I walked into their business all dressed up, carrying my folder of information, some of their comments were “what are you selling?”. I told them that this was way cooler than anything I could be selling. As I proceeded to tell them what this night was all about, there demeanor changed. I said the words “hungry children” and they immediately said “yes, we will help!” I was in awe of the generosity of our community.
Last year we had 550 people show up to support these children. There were samples of pizza from 11 generous pizza vendors. Baskets were created by employees of the Bank and also other businesses in the community donated as well. Our team came together, and we pulled this off in a little over two months. In one night, we made a little over $19 thousand dollars. It is amazing what you can do when you pull together.
It seems like that amount of money would go a long way and it did. ICCAP was able to start providing food to these children EVERY week instead of every OTHER week! In order to continue providing to these kids, we still need help.
We are back at it. I am proud to say that I am working on the event again this year. This Friday we will hold the second annual “Best Slice of Indiana”. We set our goal higher and are well on the way to beating it. Again, we have had tremendous support from the community and our Bank employees have outdone themselves this year. We have all been praying for beautiful weather on Friday and so far…I see nothing but sunny skies in the forecast.
I have included a video I made last year to help bring attention to the cause. I hope it inspires you. I also hope that you join us as we celebrate community with pizza, music, prizes and compassion.
Audrey Hepburn once said, “as you grow older you will discover you have two hands…one for helping yourself and one for helping others”. I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to find my other hand.
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