Now more than ever, it is important to give back to our communities to build hope and help our neighbors. That’s why we were excited to launch our #BeAHelper volunteer campaign at Peoples, to encourage our employees to volunteer safely from home.
Last year, Peoples employees logged over 3,700 volunteer hours. During this COVID-19 outbreak, many of our employees’ favorite volunteer activities have been put on hold, such as repacking days at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank and Wild Earth Day at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. But in spite of current challenges, they were still eager to help others.
Our employees decided to celebrate National Volunteer Week by keeping up that good work from home. Our Volunteer Activities Committee launched their #BeAHelper campaign, and we shared a list of at-home volunteer opportunities with our employees. To inspire other people to join, we shared photos of these employee volunteer activities on social media.
We saw many wonderful examples of our employees giving back from the safety of their homes – from making soup for essential workers to creating cards for kids at Children’s Hospital, it was inspiring to see so many of our employees coming up with creative ways to volunteer from home.
One of our all-star employee volunteers, Mary, decided to #BeAHelper by donning gloves, taking her picker-stick, and cleaning up litter along local roads. "My dog Caesar goes down into the streams along the road and picks up cans and bottles for me," Mary says. "All this free time I have not traveling means extra volunteer time!"
Other employees, like Donna and Jennifer, put their sewing skills to use and made hundreds of cloth masks.
During these uncertain times, being unable to physically offer a helping hand has been challenging for our volunteers. But through our #BeAHelper campaign, we were reminded that our employees remain committed to helping others and making lives better.