Employees from the New York ACA International member company volunteered to provide meals in their community and collect donations of household items.
12/20/2018 12:00
Simon’s Agency Inc. employee volunteers gathered for their second annual volunteer day Nov. 10 in Syracuse, N.Y., with many noting the awareness the event creates about people in need and benefits of community giving.
The volunteers cooked and served nearly 200 meals for residents on the city’s north side and downtown Syracuse, according to a news release.
“My experience was very humbling,” said Sherry Lane, a Simon’s Agency employee and volunteer. “Sometimes we take simple things like a roof over our head and food on the table as a ‘given.’ It was a very cold day on Saturday and when the people started coming in you could see how cold they were. One person couldn’t pick-up his plate because his hands were so cold. I smiled at him and asked if I could help him, and his comment back to me was that I already had just by smiling at him. And we heard this from many people that day!”
Employees from the Samaritan Center, the site of the volunteer day, helped lead the team through their various jobs.
“I know that I can speak on behalf of myself, my father, and my niece when I say that we all had a good time volunteering on Saturday,” Hans Keller, also an employee and volunteer with the company, said.
Cortney Gibson-Hall from the company’s team of employee volunteers added her thoughts on the rewarding experience.
“This was my second year volunteering with Simon’s at the (Samaritan) Center and it is such a rewarding experience to help those in need and for us to be a part of a community that comes together to help donate food, clothing and whatever we can while also preparing a nice meal to serve to folks that are so grateful—it’s a warm feeling that can’t be described with words alone,” Gibson-Hall said. “It’s hard work preparing the food and then cleaning up, but the reward is in the people we serve and the fact that we can put a smile on their face if only for a couple of hours on a cold Saturday afternoon.”
Simon’s Agency Inc. also collected goods to donate on volunteer day, including everything from a vacuum cleaner, clothing, toiletries and socks to canned goods and serving dishes.
Simon’s Agency owner Phil Bova graciously donated the cost of the meal as well as items he added to the donations. This greatly inspired every volunteer to represent Simon’s with the same compassion and reflect the generosity shining from the very top of our organization, according to the news release.
Another Simon’s Agency employee and volunteer, Taylor-Portzline Fanizzi, summarizes it best: “Volunteering brought me an overwhelming sense of community and joy. The way a simple smile lit some of the people up was so heartwarming. The trivial things in life don’t seem to matter too much when you’re in an environment like that: focusing on lending a hand to people who need it more than yourself. Seeing the difference we made with half of a day made me want to do that every day!”
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