Throughout my tenure here at EXAIR I have seen the company give to many different organizations and to the team members here. Recently we implemented a program where employees are allowed to choose a charity of their choice to go and volunteer for a day each year. This year for my volunteer day a group of seven members from EXAIR went to help a non-profit organization that focuses on helping students and teachers in 16 local counties.
The organization, Crayons to Computers is a free store for teachers in these counties that surround Cincinnati. The store is stocked with donations from corporate and private entities and staffed by volunteers. Their inventory can be anywhere from classroom supplies, books, decorations, technology equipment, even stocked book bags to give to students. The store is the largest of its kind here in the United States and has been serving the Cincinnati area for 20 years. Their belief is that a teacher should not have to spend money out of their pocket to supply students in need with school supplies and to ensure that schools in need have access to supplies that aren’t always easily available.
They have a sales floor where the teachers shop and then a large warehouse where the donations are all sorted and stocked for easy pull to the sales floor when needed. This is where our team spent the day. We did jobs like sorting books by reading level, organizing / packaging chair mats, unloading trucks, and finally, consolidating over 30,000 boxes of 24 count crayons so that their valuable warehouse space was being used more efficiently. These crayons were all donated by financial institutions here locally that had challenged each other to see who could donate more. It still isn’t the amount of crayons that they will supply to teachers within this school year, but it helps tremendously.
By volunteering our time we were also able to give 10 teachers who’s school would not normally qualify for shopping at Crayons To Computers the ability to go and shop for a day. This was an added bonus that we were made aware of after the fact. This is yet another way that Crayons to Computers gives to our community.
One of the best takeaways I have from this year is that I got to give back to an organization that my amazing wife would shop at when she was teaching students in need. It was organized by someone here on our team that had no knowledge of my personal connection. We ended up getting more done than they had ever hoped to get out of 7 volunteers. This was all made possible by a company that doesn’t just focus on making excellent products and providing top notch customer service. EXAIR is also focusing on making sure our team members interests are embraced by letting them choose how to give their time and the companies time to a cause they believe will give back to our local community.
If you would like to inquire about donations or how you could help Crayons to Computers, please check out their site directly.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
1-800-903-9247