Each holiday season, as we slow down to be with family and friends, we’re reminded to be thankful for our blessings, and to give back where we can. We make contributions through our social groups, offices and churches. Perhaps you select a gift off an Angel Tree for a child who would otherwise go without Christmas. Or maybe you donate to medical research that can help families spend more Christmases with their loved ones.

At RoomReady, we believe giving back is such an important part of our business that it’s incorporated into two of our core values: “care deeply” and “help others.” We ask our employees to do more than what is expected of them – to use their time, talents and gifts to give back whenever possible. We encourage them to lend a helping hand to their co-workers, their neighbors and their clients.

That’s why we’re so proud of our RoomReady Cares initiative. My brother Aaron launched the program to promote random acts of kindness within our business and the communities we live, and it’s stuck around for many years – in fact, it was initially called “ZDI Cares,” after our old company name. It was an opportunity to put even more weight behind the kindness that’s core to RoomReady, in our employees’ daily interactions with their co-workers and customers.

Like the business, however, RoomReady Cares continues to evolve. What started out as an opportunity to act on needs we saw in our local community and to help out co-workers in crisis has grown into a program impacting our communities across the country. This year, we’re working on a bigger project that leverages RoomReady’s expertise to keep people connected – but more on that in a bit.

First, here’s a little more background on how RoomReady Cares:

Assisting our colleagues and our communities

At the beginning, RoomReady Cares helped employees with a variety of needs. A few of the activities we’ve helped fund:

• Covering medical bills for an employee who fell off his bike
• Helping an employee who lost his apartment in a tornado pick up the pieces while he waited for insurance assistance
• Matching funds for employee family members fighting cancer

However, RoomReady Cares efforts now spill out into the broader communities where our employees live. One example: a RoomReady employee recently sold a rice cooker to a family through Facebook Marketplace. When he went to drop it off, he found the family was in need, so he left the rice cooker for free. The next night, he returned and left a pot of stew for the family. And when his colleagues learned of the need, they rallied and were able to raise $1,500 in a day.

This year we went looking for ways we could start using our money AND our unique expertise for a special RoomReady Cares project. We wanted to find a way to keep senior citizens connected, because they are often isolated from each other and resources for a variety of reasons. We’re assisting ENRICH, a senior community center in Florida, by providing the equipment needed so they can continue to provide classes like chair aerobics and knitting virtually.

Hope in the New Year

I’m so proud to see how willing RoomReady employees are to get involved in our RoomReady Cares initiatives. They give without hesitation, serving as an important example for how we can help others during this unique holiday season. We hope that some of our activities, whether that’s just a random act of kindness for an employee or leading a bigger effort using your company’s expertise, encourage you to adopt a similar program for your business.

We have a number of RoomReady Cares projects on our plate – some of which we can’t mention just yet, but we’re excited to share the details with you in the months ahead! In the meantime, we invite all RoomReady partners and clients to get involved with RoomReady Cares. If you’re interested, just reach out to me at pmcardle@roomready.com.

From our RoomReady family to yours: happy holidays!