Global Holiday Impact Day 2018: Doing good together, all over the world

Love cannot remain by itself - it has no meaning. Love has to be put into action, and that action is service.

― Mother Teresa

Our holiday activities this year added an important component - service. As a Box community, we felt it was important to rethink the way we celebrate the holidays and emphasize our value of making mom proud. Boxers in 19 cities across 7 countries took action with more than 35 organizations for our first ever Global Holiday Impact Day. Over the course of the past two weeks, more than 1,350 Boxers around the world volunteered over 4,000 hours. Based on the feedback we've received from Boxers and nonprofits so far, it sounds overwhelmingly like this is a tradition that will live on! 

Everyone involved learned about critical work our nonprofit partners do, took action to enable the fulfillment of their mission and got inspired to do even more with them and other nonprofits going forward.  Here's a glance at the impact:

New York

Boxers in NYC kicked off the event a week earlier than most. On December 7th, they rolled up their sleeves to wrap gifts, decorate and fill holidays stockings with winter essentials, make blankets, and write personal letters to bring love, care, and hope to people experiencing homelessness and poverty.

Austin

Working with local students at Dawson Elementary School, Boxers designed and built robots to help drive awareness and excitement for STEM education and a career in technology. These robots will be donated to the school and used by the science department for years to come. They also took building to a different scale and assembled picnic tables for Austin Community Gardens. Things took a fuzzy spin at the office where Boxers made fleece blankets to help keep the homeless warm this holiday season. 

Tokyo

Boxers in our Tokyo office put their best artist and writer hats on to pen personal holiday messages and decorate bags and personal tumblers to bring holiday cheer to children at the Christmas Village Children's Home and seniors at the Hakujisho Senior Home during the holiday season! 

London

Our Boxers in London split between indoor and outdoor activities. Some Boxers jumped into canoes and paddled through the canals in partnership with the Regent's Canal Coalition to pick up trash and keep the water clean for the animals that call it home. Others opted to stay on land and get their hands and feet dirty working with animals, cleaning, and gardening to support the programs at the Kentish Town Farms. Indoors, Boxers painted a women’s refuge run by Solace Women’s Aid and assembled holiday hampers for The Food Chain to deliver to individuals with HIV.

San Francisco & Redwood City

The final time zone to participate in Impact Day was the west coast in our Bay Area offices. Box HQ was transformed into an Impact Center for our San Francisco and Redwood City Boxers to take action. We assembled holiday stocking gifts and blankets for individuals experiencing homelessness, decorated succulent plants for seniors, wrote cards to support the transgender community, created materials for local art curriculum and assembled game kits for families facing medical crises. We were honored to have a special student guest, Jack Chai, share his life-saving Be the Match story and register his record number of new bone marrow donors, exceeding his original goal! We also supported those affected by the California wildfires by building furniture for families and raising recovery funds to help rebuild school infrastructure for displaced students.

Remote offices

Boxers in 14 locations around the world came together to do #MoreGoodTogether and give back to their local communities. In Sydney, Toronto, Paris, Atlanta, and Nashville, we packed food and holiday hampers and served hot meals to those experiencing hunger. Denver Boxers sorted donations and set up the Habitat for Humanity ReStore that helps fund their local programs. In D.C., Boxers wrote letters to veterans, first responders, troops, new recruits, wounded heroes, and their caregivers. Chicago Boxers transported food to the PAWS adoption center and spent time socializing the animals - nobody went home with a new furry friend...yet. ;) 

One of Box.org's main impact areas is supporting and enabling youth success. This came through loud and clear in many of the volunteer efforts. Boxers in Plano, Los Angeles and Seattle supported toy drives and efforts to ensure low-income children have gifts this holiday season. In Munich, Boxers refurbished and set up two rooms for migrant youth. Boxers in Boston sorted and scanned thousands of books for More Than Words to resell to support their programs for youth. Finally, Boxers in Raleigh mentored and spent time with youth at the Boys and Girls Club, in addition to getting their butts kicked on the soccer field!

Thank you!

This wouldn't have been possible without our partners at Give2Get who helped facilitate and organize volunteering in most of our major offices. If you're looking to weave social impact into your next big internal or external event, we'd be happy to introduce you - they're rockstars. 

And we must extend a HUGE thank you to all our Boxer regional event leads who made our Holiday Impact Day possible! 

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