Embrace the Spirit of Giving With Your Gathering
Donating time and money for a good cause will brighten the holidays for you and the less fortunate
(Published in the Chicago Holiday Party Planning Guide) (July 2019)
After a long year of crunching numbers, wooing clients or performing whatever essential duties your job entails, the holidays can be a welcome respite from all of that labor.
When it’s finally time to let your hair down at the company holiday party, it’s satisfying to reflect on your contributions and realize all the good you have done for your workplace.
Clearly, you and your associates are hard workers and impeccable human beings, which makes you ideal candidates to tie a charitable cause into this year’s celebration.
After all, what better time to let your philanthropic side flourish than the holidays? Rather than spending your party time exclusively binging and boozing (although, that does sound tempting), you can use the platform to give back to the community.
Not only will this benefit your fellow man, it will give your co-workers an extra reason to feel good about themselves and the company they toil for.
Here are some charitable ideas that will make your party a more meaningful endeavor without sapping the joy out of what typically is a whiz-bang of a soiree.
Building a stuffed animal
About 15 million children in the United States, 21 percent of all youth in the country, live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold. While food and water are obviously more valuable requirements, one thing that’s often overlooked by altruistic sorts is a child’s need to play. A new toy will not only brighten a youngster’s spirit, it can give him or her a sense of pride in possessing something to call their own.
Organizations like Windy City Charity Projects not only provide an opportunity for groups to build stuffed animals for the less fortunate, they also use those workshops to help employees develop problem-solving skills through a series of collaborative challenges.
More than merely stuffing teddy bears, these programs focus on strategy, execution and parlaying the impact of independent roles into team success. That’s a fancy way of saying your co-workers will enjoy quality bonding time which will lead to children joyously hugging their new stuffed animal. An unequivocal win-win scenario.
Charity bicycle build
Similar to the toy-constructing exercise, a charity bicycle build will unify employees while enriching the life of a child.
Windy City Charity Projects and Bikes for Goodness Sake can help your company host an event in which your cohorts, armed with wrenches and enthusiasm, race to build children’s bicycles.
These charities can work with a local bicycle shop to deliver bikes, helmets and tool kits to your party. The shop will also, most likely, provide a mechanic for your event to look over the completed bikes. This ensures your mates’ atrocious assembly skills won’t cause a bicycle to disintegrate the moment a gleeful youngster hops on. After all, there’s a reason you all opted to become accountants instead of mechanics.
If you want to go the extra mile and give your co-workers a heartwarming surprise, you can arrange to have the bike recipients rush into the room after the build to receive their presents. For once, the tears shed at a holiday party will be of the cheerful variety.
Cooking for a cause
More than 41 million Americans struggle with hunger, a number nearly equal to the 40.6 million living in poverty. Your holiday party can do its part to help battle this epidemic by hosting a company cookoff.
Undoubtedly, some of your co-workers possess exquisite culinary skills, so why not put them to good use? A cookoff will test your associates’ creativity and teamwork as they are broken off into teams to create meals for a soup kitchen. Tasking participants with purchasing ingredients prior to the event will add to their feeling of satisfaction once the dish is prepared.
Even those who are challenged by the process of hard-boiling eggs can contribute to the cause by reading directions, opening cans or offering platitudes that typically annoy, but in this case, might inspire. Just when it appears simultaneously cooking black beans and Clams Casino will overwhelm Dolores the software developer, a well-timed “Hang in there” from Bernard the project engineer might get her over the hump and motivate the team to create an exemplary meal.
Fundraiser run … or walk
Certainly, any attempts to plan a run or walk in Chicago is risky, given the mercurial weather and frigid temperatures that envelop the holidays. That said, there are probably a few maniacs on your payroll who embrace Polar Plunge dips in Lake Michigan in March, so to those extreme types, a charity run will be akin to a walk in the park in July.
However, if your office is filled with Arizona transplants who simply refuse to spend more than two minutes in the great Chicago outdoors, another option is to find an indoor track where participants can strut their stuff in a comfortable 72-degree setting. Another option is to procure the services of a gym that will let you sequester its equipment for a treadmill challenge. Those who run the farthest distance during a one-hour treadmill session can be deemed the victor.
To make your event more inclusive (and to raise more money), promote the race to community members and invite them to compete. Drumming up donations should be simple enough, given even the tightest of wads tend to loosen their pocketbooks around the holidays.
The most proficient fundraiser can be awarded a prize, from top-of-the-line running gear to a month’s supply of Twinkies, in case you don’t want to overdo the whole “being healthy” thing.
Movie marathon
On the opposite end of the fitness spectrum, your company can host a movie marathon with the admission fee being given to charity.
Whether you rent out a movie theater or a VFW hall, the minute you distribute a flier promoting a showing of both Weekend at Bernie’s and Weekend at Bernie’s II, you’ll have colleagues lining up to give you their money.
If you want your cinematic experience to carry an elegant feel, Chicago is chock-full of impressive screening rooms that can be rented out. For instance, the Museum of Science and Industry’s Giant Dome Theater seats 260 and will project your movie on a five-story, domed wraparound; the Adler Planetarium’s theater seats 195 and features a dramatic 36-foot-tall domed ceiling; the Art Institute of Chicago offers a 950-seat auditorium containing multi-tiered seating, a loge and an upper balcony; and the Field Museum’s ornate 700-seat theater is notable for its columns, detailed recessed ceiling and state-of-the-art digital projection system.
Any of those establishments will make your 16,000th viewing of A Christmas Story as memorable as the first.
Winter craft workshop
The craftier members of your office will appreciate the chance to show off their hidden knitting, calligraphy and stonemasonry talents at a winter craft workshop.
Charging an entry fee to cover supplies and collect donations will ensure money will reach an intended charity, and your co-workers will gladly pay for the opportunity to assemble a Santa Claus ornament out of a bag of walnuts.
A workshop will enable your colleagues to construct whatever treasures their fertile minds think up, all while wearing grotesque Christmas sweaters and drinking various alcohol-infused beverages.
If that isn’t a recipe for a blissful evening, you may be working with a nihilistic bunch of malcontents. In which case, you should really find a new gig.