How we pulled off a virtual volunteer day

At Haven Life, we believe that one key measure of good citizenship is what we can do for others — as individuals and as a team. That’s why volunteer days are a regular thing here, and why we were determined to come together for our community right now even though we’re physically apart.

While there is never a bad time to lend a helping hand, 2020 has been an especially good time to consider the impact you can have on other people — and between the ongoing pandemic, the widespread economic downturn, and the important fight for racial equality, there is plenty of opportunity.

So how did we do it? We couldn’t, as in years past, all gather at a food bank or deliver meals in person to the elderly. Instead, we asked our team members to volunteer locally, wherever and however they could — after all, many of us are working remotely all throughout the country. We’re happy to say the team came through. To show how big an impact they had, we thought it might be helpful to look at the numbers. (We can’t help it, we work with actuaries.)

24: Number of employees who participated in our volunteer day.

121: Total hours we volunteered.

100: Our original goal for volunteer hours.

21: Bonus volunteer hours that amounts to. (In case you didn’t want to do the math.)

18: Number of organizations that benefited, including:

• Cards for Hospitalized Kids
• Black Girls Code
• The Marcy Lab School
• Letters of Love — Love for Elders
• Croton Caring Committee Inc.
• CovEducation
• Cards for Kidz
• Citymeals on Wheels
• Boys & Girls Club

We also volunteered for several local food banks, reviewed resumes with students for a fellowship program at historically black colleges and universities, and phone- / text-banked for candidates for elected office.

3,025: Number of dollars we raised (even though raising money wasn’t the primary goal).

3: Heartwarming quotes from our team we wanted to share with you:

“I did some drawings and letters to elders with Letters of Love with my son.” — Karen Camarasa Angelo, designer

“I’ve been mentoring some young kids weekly — teaching a fifth grader to code with Scratch, and helping a young refugee learn to read.” — Zack Shinkar, underwriting developer

“I volunteered this morning at the local food pantry preparing groceries for families in need — three hours of collecting shopping lists from the families and packing the bags and setting them on tables for them to pick up. I am incredibly humbled and grateful I had this opportunity.” — Asia Labrie, senior manager of our information security team