TQL Mobilizes for National Volunteer Week

For National Volunteer Week April 22-30, teams of TQL employees and their friends and families fanned out across the country. They painted, planted, weeded, cleaned, sorted, stacked, cooked, served, gathered and de-littered. And in Fort Lauderdale, they played.

Team Ft. Lauderdale wasn’t slacking off, though. The office’s Charity Captain, Carl W. grew up going to the Boys & Girls Club in Jacksonville, FL. It was a place that provided him guidance and positive role models, and he wanted to pass that on to kids at the Boys & Girls Club in Fort Lauderdale.  “It was great,” says Carl W. “The kids couldn’t get enough of us.”

Amid friendly games of basketball, foosball, and flag football, TQL employees talked to the kids about hard work and the importance of education. “The club was very pleased with the engagement that took place,” concluded Carl.  So were the kids. “It was hard just to walk out without the kids following and asking us when we’d be back.”

And they will be back. Return plans are already in the works.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Florida, our Sarasota office engaged 77% of the team to help clean up Locklear Park. On Earth Day, they worked with park representatives to fill an entire dump truck with natural debris and litter.

Team Sarasota wasn’t the only location to make the most of Earth Day. Twenty-Four teams of TQL volunteers helped clear out and/or landscape parks, neighborhoods, and private homes during the week.

Other highlights from National Volunteer Week include:

• In Columbia, SC and Cincinnati, teams engaged with transitioning homeless by hosting board game nights.
• TQL teams helped sort and organize thousands of donations at foodbanks in Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Cleveland, Kansas City and Detroit.
• We partnered with Habitat for Humanity on projects in Savannah, Salt Lake City, Orlando and Cincinnati.
• We played board games with kids at the Dallas Ronald McDonald house; and cooked and served meals at homeless shelters in Tampa and Pittsburgh.
• Team Indianapolis took inspiration from Team Fort Lauderdale and hung out with kids at their local Boys and Girls Club.
• Volunteers played basketball with inner-city youth as part of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative.

In all, more than 600 TQL employees, family members and friends participated in 53 separate volunteer events from Portland to Pittsburgh and everywhere in between, and we are grateful for everyone’s effort.  In addition, TQL donated $13,250 to qualifying nonprofits through the company’s volunteer matching program.

Giving back is part of who we are. If you’re interested in being part of a team who likes to help, consider a career at TQL.