Tampa Helps Hungry Kids, Wins Ping Pong Tourney

What started as an offhand tweet ended with a well-covered ping pong tournament and food raiser for children in need.

See, we knew the office was cool.

But when the Tampa Bay Business Journal listed the Harbour Island digs of TQL Tampa as a finalist for its Coolest Office Space awards in February, others in the area took notice.

Tampa employment agency Vaco tweeted congratulations and invited themselves over for a game of ping pong.

TQL quickly upped the ante, challenging Vaco and other companies including Top Golf, GTE Financial and the Journal to a tournament.

Because one of the cool elements of the Tampa office is its cereal bar, we connected with Feeding Tampa Bay and its #CerealForSummer campaign to collect boxes of cereal to help feed kids who usually rely on school meals when school is out for the summer.

Some friendly social media sparring among the participants ensued in the run-up to the May 4 event, but in the end, TQL won. Both on the tables and in donations.

“The beauty of what we do here at TQL is whenever there is a challenge, we pull together, we go over the top and we get it done,” said Brokerage Team Leader Chad L., who not only played on the winning pong doubles squad, but whose team also donated about 700 boxes of cereal.

(WTSP – who did several live shots during the event – was particularly enamored of the Great Wall of Cereal display that snaked through the office.)

“Cap’n Crunch came through last night,” Chad said. “It was better than what we had planned. It was a great turnout; seven or eight or other offices were here. The charity that got all the food had really good things to say. It could become an annual thing.”

In the meantime, TQL will have a truck at the WTSP studios to gather more cereal donations Friday, May 6.

Our philanthropic motto is move a lot, give a lot. If you’re interested in making a difference in your community while having a great time doing it, consider a career at TQL.