Addison Group employees happy wearing Addison cares shirt

AG CARES

V-Week 2022

Showing Love to Our Communities Across the Country

Valentine’s Day is a moment to show gratitude for the ones we cherish.  This year, Addison Group took that to the next level by devoting time to help our communities during the first-ever V-Week: a nationwide Addison Group volunteer week. Every office was encouraged to attend volunteer outings at local organizations to spread the love through the week and make a positive impact as part of the #AGCares campaign. #AGCares was organized by a team of senior and regional vice presidents, as well as the Administrative team.

Addison Group’s volunteer efforts spanned coast to coast – literally – and assisted organizations across various social justice issues such as food insecurity, homelessness, education, sustainability, and animal welfare.

Our Schaumburg, IL office volunteered at Feed My Starving Children, where they packed 125,000 boxes of food for children dealing with food insecurity – equaling over 270,000 meals and 74 children fed for an entire year. Kelsey Schlegle, office manager in Schaumburg, IL, coordinated the outings. She believes that “it’s important not only to help others in need but to also be an active part of your community to make it better.”

“I already knew I was going to love this, but what truly impacted me was seeing how much my office loved giving back,” Schlegle said. “The amount of people who told me how much fun this was and how they want to come back ASAP, was just overwhelming.”

In our Houston branch, officer manager Kendralyn Randle participated in the team’s volunteer outreach at a community garden created by Target Hunger, where they weeded and planted vegetables to be eaten by members of the community.

“It shows we as a company care about more than just making a buck,” Randle said. “Even baby steps towards helping out in the community can impact multiple families’ well-being. We will definitely be going back as a group to see if we can do more.”

At Addison’s headquarters in Chicago, over 50 employees attended food repacking sessions at the Greater Chicago Food Depository this week. Over the span of four repacking sessions, the teams worked efficiently to pack enough food for a total of over 43,00 meals for individuals facing food insecurity – that’s more than 52,000 pounds of food packed our Addison employees!

The New York office delivered pantry items and hot meals to homebound senior citizens with an organization called New York Cares. Matt Chester, Branch Manager of Finance and Accounting – Contract in New York, remarked that Addison employees are used to helping others, as they help people find new opportunities on a daily basis.

“This was different, watching the team take time to not only help this senior community but to watch them interact and put a smile on the faces of others was special to watch,” Chester said. “It’s important to give back within the surrounding communities to bring joy and happiness to those around us, especially in these difficult times.”

Though not every employee-led volunteer and community outreach initiative is highlighted in this article, the efforts certainly did not go unnoticed by your communities and the rest of the Addison Group Family. Thank you to everyone who played a part in organizing, participating, and supporting the various volunteer events of V-Week. The initiative showed major success in positively impacting the communities we live and work in every day.

“What truly impacted me was seeing how much my office loved giving back.”

– Kelsey Schegle, Office Manager, Schaumburg, IL