The Creation Technologies Business Development Team is making a difference in the field everyday…but recently not exactly like you might think.

Making a Difference Together

The Business Development Team at Creation Technologies meets annually to discuss ongoing customer needs and strategies, and 2014 was no different.

As an addition to this year’s summit, however, we wanted to find a community service project where we could help as a team during our week-long strategy session.

“Making a Difference” is part of the Creation Technologies culture. People in each Creation business unit are engaged within their own community, working regularly as a team to ‘enrich lives’ and ‘improve our world’.

Since our business development team is made up of people in all Creation locations, we don’t get to meet face-to-face very often. Why not Make a Difference together, given the opportunity!?

What do you do with 20 business development people and
2 hours of time?

Thanks to some research and some very helpful local contacts, we were able to get a great list of local non-profit organizations that might need our help.

I set to work exploring our options, and when I first spoke to Maribel Pimentel, Volunteer Relations Program Supervisor at Martha’s Village & Kitchen, it was obvious that this would be a good fit for our team project.

Based in Indio, California, Martha’s Village & Kitchen addresses the underlying causes of homelessness. The organization challenges each resident to become a better person, regaining their lives to become self-sufficient, productive citizens and passing their newfound independence and life skills on to their children and families.

With such a broad vision, Martha’s Village has a host of daily activities. Maribel was so excited to have a group of 20+ people available to come and help.

As it turned out, Bob Therieau, IT Director, needed help sorting through a massive amount of equipment that was taking over his office.

Desktops, monitors, mice, keyboards, phones, cables, cords, you name it, he had it.

A LOT of it.

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It just so happens that we have a little bit of experience with high-tech equipment!

We set out to remove all of the equipment from Bob’s office and sort through it. Unusable items would be recycled, and usable items returned to Bob’s office or sold in their thrift store to raise funds.

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Did we do it? Yes!! Two hours later we completed our mission and transformed Bob’s room from a cluttered to usable space.

Small Things, Big Impact

After our summit, we received some very kind words from Maribel:

Creation Technologies visited Martha’s Village & Kitchen on February 19 full of energy and motivation to help our IT department. For 2 hours they helped clean, sort and destroy equipment in our conference room. This was a huge project that has been in need of completion for quite some time; however, being a non-profit we are more times than not lacking the manpower. We are very thankful that Creation Technologies sought us out to give back to the Coachella Valley, a community that they were simply visiting. Little did I know, they would be one of the most fun, outgoing and organized groups that I would have had the pleasure of working with. I missed them as soon as they left.”

Our business development team really enjoyed spending time together, and it was made that much better by spending time with Martha’s Village and Kitchen.

Maribel’s words remind us that what can seem like little things can have big impact.

Is “Making a Difference” part of your 2014 strategy? Does your company have a community involvement initiative? What works well for your team?