Employees provided 5,300 hours of service during sixth-annual Week of Caring
Nearly 700 Mercedes-Benz Financial Services’ North Texas employees stepped away from their daily routines to lend their time, expertise and labor to 13 nonprofits working to improve the quality of life for underprivileged individuals, families and children during the company’s sixth-annual Week of Caring in May, a news release announced.
According to the release, 5,300 hours of engaging with local students through interactive educational programs, creating immersive learning tools, stocking food and preparing meals for hungry individuals, families and their pets, and designing welcoming and comforting environments for women and families seeking shelter was contributed by Mercedes-Benz Financial Services staff during the week-long event.
“Mercedes-Benz Financial Services is dedicated to so much more than conducting business in North Texas. Our employees and customers live and work in this region, and we are committed to doing our part to have a positive community impact,” Peter Zieringer, president/CEO of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, said in the release. “Our Week of Caring is just one of the many ways that we are engaged with groups that are making a difference in our communities.”
Week of Caring is part of the organization’s commitment to community engagement, during which a variety of volunteer projects are selected that focus on social responsibility in arts and culture; community enhancement; diversity and inclusion; and education, the release detailed.
The release detailed the 13 North Texas nonprofits that staff volunteered at, as well as the type of work that was done:
— ACH Child and Family Services — Volunteers rolled-up their sleeves and worked hard to clean the campus and beautify its gardens by spreading mulch and planting flowers.
— Community Food Bank — Aiming to fight hunger for North Texas families, volunteers spent two days organizing, sorting and distributing nearly 17,000 pounds of food (equivalent to 11,500 meals) to help those in need.
— Community Storehouse — More than 90 volunteers updated the Upscale Resale Store. This included applying more than 18 gallons of paint to the interior walls as well sorting and shelving donated food and clothing to assist families facing difficult challenges.
— Don’t Forget to Feed Me — Volunteers helped sort, package and distribute 8,200 pounds of food (or 10,933 meals) for pets in Tarrant County for the only social service agency in the Dallas-Fort Worth area focused solely on assisting pet owners who are unable to afford pet food.
— Dwell with Dignity – Thrift Studio — Teaming up with well-known, local nonprofit Dwell with Dignity, volunteers painted, reorganized furniture and prepared the open-to-the-public Thrift Studio, a pop-up shop fundraiser created to financially support Dwell with Dignity by selling deeply discounted, high-end finds.
— Hubbard Heights Elementary — Through a long-standing relationship with the school’s principal, volunteers brought to life six educational, custom-designed murals for students of the elementary to learn from and enjoy.
— Junior Achievement (JA) of the Chisholm Trail — Through interactive, hands-on, age-appropriate lessons, volunteers engaged with 250 kindergarten through second grade students at Caprock Elementary School and 60 ninth grade students at Eaton High School to explain the basics of money, the value of savings and how money flows in an economy.
— Kids Against Hunger — More than 80 volunteers worked together to package 39,097 meals to provide nourishment for families across North Texas and Mexico.
— Meals on Wheels of Tarrant County — Volunteers worked together to package more than 2,300 pieces of bread for the elderly living in Tarrant County, and also applied some elbow grease to clean the facility.
— REAL School Gardens — Working together alongside students and teachers from Oakmont Elementary School, more than 100 volunteers installed a 20,875 square foot immersive educational garden. Among many wonderful features including a labyrinth, water feature and two instructional seating areas, the garden includes 117 plants and trees, 615 vegetables and herbs and 2,105 feet of paving.
— SafeHaven of Tarrant County — More than 30 helping hands volunteered to beautify the residential facilities to help create a holistic shelter to provide care for the victims of domestic violence.
— SPARK! Dallas — To help ignite the spark of creativity, volunteers transformed the activity space to provide children with a fully immersive learning environment.
— Trinity Habitat for Humanity — Volunteers worked together to install windows and siding on a new home for a hardworking, deserving family in North Texas.
While the numbers released detail the work of hundreds of North Texas Mercedes-Benz Financial Services employees, during Week of Caring more than 1,300 volunteers from the company’s headquarters, located in Farmington Hills, Michigan, as well as in Atlanta, Georgia; Fort Mill, South Carolina; and Mississauga, Canada, will take part in community service activities. According to the release, more than 9,500 hours of volunteer service, benefitting 31 different nonprofit organizations will be dedicated in 2018, and since it’s 2013 beginnings, more than 80 volunteer projects, spanning nearly 50,000 hours of service, have been completed during Week of Caring.