With unemployment at an all-time high, LaPorte employees wanted to find some way to help those facing food insecurity, and at the same time find a way to fight the stagnation of quarantine. We created a fundraising event to get our employees and friends moving, all while raising money for Feeding America, a national organization that supports food banks across the country including ones in our local communities: Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana (which helps support the Northshore Food Bank), the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, and the Houston Food Bank.
Our event, Get Moving to Feed America, was held on Friday, May 15th. Our employees and friends walked away from their computers to get some exercise in fun and creative ways while quarantining at home with family and pets. Participants did everything from taking a walk in the neighborhood, puddle jumping with grandkids, to riding bikes, jumping on trampolines, and even hula hooping!
We also asked our employees to consider donating to Feeding America and to help promote our fundraising efforts with their friends and family on social media.
Our event was a huge success! We more than doubled our initial fundraising goal of $5,000. Between checks and donations to our GoFundMe page, we raised almost $13,000 to help feed families in need in this challenging time. This included a $5,000 match from the equity shareholders in our firm.
“I am so proud to lead such an outstanding group of people,” said William ‘Ted’ Mason III, LaPorte President and CEO. “They saw a need in their communities and they jumped in enthusiastically to help. Giving back to our communities is one of the firm’s key values and it is so rewarding to see it put into action in this way,” he continued.