The VIEWS Team Cares

Dinner at the Community Shelter

Mary, a client success manager on the VIEWS team, recently served a meal with her family at the local community shelter.

The Community Shelter of Union County has a vision to “End Homelessness and Hunger in our Community.” They provide food, emergency shelter and instruction to individuals and families in need within the community. In fact, with the help of generous organizations and individuals, the Shelter supplies 3 meals a day, 365 days a year to any in the community who need them. Other services they provide include a soup kitchen, hope pantry, case management, adult emergency shelter, emergency family sheltering, and rapid re-housing programs.

“People having to endure food insecurity is something that breaks my heart,” Mary stated. “I appreciate that we have this resource, run by such caring individuals, in our community to help those in need, and our family appreciates the opportunity to be part of that help.

Mary and her family brought dinner consisting of baked ziti, rolls, salad, applesauce and cupcakes for the residents of the shelter and those occupying a local hotel, as well as other community members who came for a meal.

Blessing Bags in North Carolina

Many families have less than they need, often going without essentials like food and toiletries. Various organizations offer assistance to these individuals and families in need, and one of the ways they do this is through providing “blessing bags” that contain many needed items.

Serve Unity is one such organization in Union County, North Carolina. Serve Unity supports people directly, and they also assist other organizations who provide support, such as the Community Shelter. The VIEWS team volunteered to pack blessings bags and assist others in need. 

Local organizations that participated with Serve Unity were given the opportunity to talk about their programs and how they supported the community. Both Jenny and Mary were excited to be part of the effort and to learn about some other initiatives such as a mobile laundry and shower van.

Jenny noted, “It was inspiring and a little humbling to see how much some organizations and individual people are doing to help those in need.”

35 local businesses and organizations, including VIEWS, collected supplies including snacks, toothpaste, toothbrushes, combs, hygiene items and more to fill blessing bags that would later be contributed to various providers in Union County. In addition, 10 bags were earmarked for specific students in local schools who were currently homeless.

Thanksgiving Dinner Deliveries

Many families, especially this year, are unable to afford a Thanksgiving Dinner. Common Heart is an organization that works to provide food and other necessities to local residents in need. The organization often works with the local Community Shelter to support the community at large. 

At Thanksgiving, Common Heart has an annual Great Turkey Countdown, collecting food and turkeys to distribute the weekend before Thanksgiving. In 2020, they organized deliveries to 1500 community families. Volunteers organized the food, loaded cars, and made deliveries to families. Team member Mary and her husband Pete donated and joined the delivery team this year, though in past years they have participated in loading the cars. 

Mary says, “It’s a great feeling to be able to help support our community members. I love that Common Heart delivers food to those in need every week. This Thanksgiving Drive brings awareness to the challenges of food insecurity in our local neighborhoods and gives people the opportunity to contribute.”

Typhoon Ulysses Relief Operation Drive 

As part of giving back to the community, the VIEWS Digital Marketing team has partnered with team member Karen’s local village community in the Philippines for a donation drive spearheaded by her cousin. Karen, her family, cousin, and a group of volunteers gathered together to repack food bags, water, rice and hygiene kits.

The main goal was to produce food packs, water, rice, and hygiene kits for 100 affected families in the Rizal province. The outcome the group produced resulted in:

● 145 bags of food groceries (4 canned goods, 2 day packs of instant viand, biscuits, butter toast, 2 boxes of ready-to-drink milk, instant noodles)
● 140 packs of hygiene kits (3 body soaps, sachet of shampoo, 2 toothbrushes, sachets of toothpaste, and 2 feminine napkins)
● 190 bags of rice
● 144 packs of biscuits
● 150+ bottles of water

The donation drive started out with a few donated boxes of old clothes and towels from villagers and family friends. As time passed by, canned goods, water, and hygiene kits came in several boxes!

Karen says, “I am very thankful for my VIEWS  Digital Marketing family for this opportunity to give back to the community. The families in Rodriguez, Rizal hold a special place in my heart. I used to climb their beautiful rocky mountain trails back in 2016. On one occasion, our small group was stranded in the campsite due to the rapid rise of the river water and we couldn’t cross. One of the local residents welcomed us in their humble home and served us warm dinner. It was the most filling noodles I ever had. Many thanks to Ate Lai and her family for keeping us dry and sharing with us what they have. Now it’s our turn to give back.”

Lending a Helping Hand to Our Furry Friends

Members of our team have also shared their time, work, and resources to help out animal care organizations. Scott, one member of our Pennsylvania team, has volunteered both his time and his resources to a nearby animal shelter: Forgotten Felines and Fidos. The shelter is a non-profit, all-volunteer, no-kill animal shelter mainly housing cats.

According to Scott, “My family took in feral cats, and ever since then Forgotten Felines has been an invaluable resource. We know firsthand the difficult lives these animals live, and so we do our best to provide them with food, care, and money to keep this organization going.” Over the years, Scott has donated many cans of cat food and money to the shelter, along with spending time in the shelter socializing the cats.

In addition to volunteering their time and donating to cat shelters, Scott and his family have helped give a few feral cats homes. During the summer of 2021, Scott and his family found a litter of 4 kittens near their home: 3 calicos and one tabby. The kittens were at least eight weeks old, having already been weaned and able to eat solid food. Scott believed these cats were living underneath a shed or at least using the underside of the shed for shelter. After much deliberation and consulting with neighbors, friends, and animal shelter professionals, Scott and his family attempted to give the kittens homes.

While the initial planning took some time, the actual trapping and giving away was the opposite. In less than a workweek, Scott and his family had trapped the kittens and given them to homes (even receiving more requests than the number of kittens available.) The mother, a white cat, had also been trapped, and Scott and his family got her spayed, preventing any overpopulation of feral cats in their neighborhood.

“Trapping them was exhausting,” Scott said. “We caught [the cats] faster than I think any of us expected. Coordinating everything in such a short time was difficult, especially with regards to getting the mom fixed. But I am glad we did so and that we were able to give them homes where their new owners will take care of them from now on.”

Covid-19 Community Responses

In preparation of Philippines’ hybrid and module-based learning, the teachers from Balagtasin Elementary School in Batangas province rolled out a donation drive “Bond Paper at Printer Ink Mo, Para sa Modyul ng mga Estudyante ko”. It calls for donations of bond papers and inks to make modules for continuous education primarily for students who don’t have access to computers, gadgets, or internet connectivity.

Karen supported the campaign initiated by her childhood friend, who is a teacher from Balagtasin Elementary School, through monetary donation. Karen strongly believes education is one of the keys to ending poverty aside from a good healthcare system.

To see the full story and the silent heroes album visit the facebook site.