Affinis Team Shows Servant Leadership with 4 Local, Community Service Projects

Servant leadership has been a core Affinis value since its founding. For the last several years, we’ve challenged one another to celebrate stewardship by performing acts of community service. In 2019, we logged more than 940 hours as a firm.

In addition to choosing their own community service, we asked co-workers to submit ideas for firm-wide volunteer projects. The four shown below were selected.

Feeding Those in Need with Harvesters
Affinis is long-time supporter of Harvesters. We like their local connection and decided to serve them in a couple of ways this year. This spring, we folded grocery bags for the Stamp Out Hunger collection. For this initiative, postal workers drop off empty bags and then, pick them up with donated goods a few days later. In addition to folding the bags, we brought non-perishable food to the office for Take Your Can to Work Day.

Creating Happy Kits for Children’s Mercy Hospital
In September, Affinis assembled and donated 40 happy kits for Children’s Mercy Hospital. In each one, we added coloring books, crayons, card games, little dinosaur toys, story books, and stickers. The kits are used in a variety of areas throughout the hospital and clinics to make patients and families feel welcome during their visit. This organization was selected because of our firm’s personal connection with the hospital.

Lending a Hand at Great Plains SPCA
Great Plains SPCA is one of the largest no-kill animal shelters in Kansas City, offering comprehensive resources for pets. This October, we helped with odd jobs around the facility, moving boxes and creating bags of mixed food for pet owners. We also had some time to interact with the animals, helping to socialize and get them ready for their new families.

Collecting Books for the Church of the Resurrection’s Bookmobile
The Church of the Resurrection (COR) has a bookmobile that is sent to schools in the Kansas City Metro area that have a high percentage of students on free or reduced lunch. When the bookmobile visits a school, each child is offered one gently used book and one brand new one. Most of these children do not have access to books at home. To support our local community, we collected paperbacks, chapter books, and books for early readers. The greatest need was for those in 5th and 6th grade, so we focused most of our efforts there.

For more ideas on how you can give back, take a look at our 2017  and 2018 service challenges.