Copperleaf’s RAD Initiative Gives Back!

I’ve posted before about our Random Acts of Delight (RAD) program. At Copperleaf we all feel it is important to be present in, and give back to, our local communities.  It’s important to our people and is an inherent part of our culture. I’m happy to see how our employees have embraced the RAD program. Here are some of the great initiatives that closed out 2016!

TechPong
Take a sampling of local tech companies, add Ping Pong, a desire to help the less fortunate, food, beer and voila, you have Vancouver’s TechPong! Not only is it as fun as it sounds, it does a lot of good too. Teams from Vancouver’s tech community each pledge to raise a minimum of $2,500 to support their charity of choice. We chose  Canada SCORES Vancouver, a really cool local charity that combines sports (namely soccer) with poetry/reading/writing (I know right?) to instill confidence, character, strength, and health in urban youth in order to empower them to have a positive impact on their communities! We put up one doubles and one singles team.

It was awesome to find out we have a ping pong ringer our staff. Our team, made up of Rippu Gupta (resident ringer), Simon Staszkiewicz, and Will Wang took to the field. The event was held at the ultra-cool Imperial Theatre that housed 5 tables including one on center stage! Our team did us proud, and they had a blast! Thanks to the generosity of our colleagues who chipped in via an old fashioned bake sale and the Copperleaf matching program, we were able to raise more than the minimum $2,500! Our sights are already set on next year’s event where we have a legit chance to take home the trophy!

Sponsor a Family for Christmas
We continued our tradition from last year of supporting the local Christmas Bureau by raising funds to give gifts to local families who couldn’t afford gifts for their kids, and at-risk seniors. We held raffles, a silent auction, and even a 50-50 draw at our Christmas party. Copperleaf matched the funds raised by the staff, so we ended up with over $2,000 to buy a ton of gifts for the kids, including bikes, educational toys, books, games and more. For the at-risk seniors, we gave them food hampers and some much-needed warm clothing and comfy slippers to keep them warm and cozy this winter! Some of our team delivered the gifts personally and were able to spend a bit of time with each recipient and the warmth, joy, and excitement (particularly the little girl who got her brand new Frozen bike!) made it all worthwhile. It brought the true meaning of Christmas to life for all of us.

What’s Next
Our 2017 RAD activities are still in the planning stages but will likely include participating in charity races and perhaps a green space stewardship/planning event. Stay tuned for future posts for more!