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| Three Weeks, Three Themes, Three Teams November 2009 In just one day, members of MITRE's Enterprise Systems Engineering and Integration division made 3,600 breakfast sandwiches, prepared 600 salads, set 150 bags of mulch, painted six rooms, and assembled 114 care packages for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The recently formed division chose to take part in the first 9/11 National Day of Service and Remembrance by doing hands-on volunteer work and supporting soldiers serving overseas. The group helped two area nonprofit organizations—D.C. Central Kitchen (DCCK) and Community Residences (CR)—and assembled boxes of goodies using guidelines posted by Care Packages for Troops. "We told the charities to put us to good use," says Ellen Ward, a senior information systems engineer. They clearly listened.
Everyone responded enthusiastically when Brian Boyland, division manager, suggested a service-related activity for the group's team-building event set for September 18. "We realized, though, that with only two hours set aside for our team building—and with 120 people—it wasn't feasible to do a single large-scale service activity," says Ward. The group decided instead to perform volunteer work in teams in honor of the National Day of Service and then share their stories when the division gathered the following week. That decision was made on August 21. Ward, who led the overall effort, along with selected team captains, had just three weeks to develop and implement a plan. "We wanted to offer choices so that people could choose their level of participation," explains Ward. "It was important to make it flexible and easy to participate." She spoke with Volunteer Fairfax and set parameters: one volunteer activity in D.C., one in Northern Virginia, and one on MITRE's McLean campus. "We had three themes," she explains. "Teamwork, service, and networking. We're a newer group, so we wanted opportunities to get to know each other." Ward and her colleagues quickly settled on DCCK and CR for the local community service work. DCCK is an award-winning community kitchen that recycles more than one ton of surplus food each day and turns it into 4,500 nutritious meals for the greater Washington, D.C., region. The organization also trains formerly homeless individuals for jobs in the food and service industries. CR provides services to people with a wide range of disabilities and works to promote independent community living. For the Care Packages for Troops, the team captains drew on their own experiences and previous campaigns within MITRE. Putting a call out across MITRE for names and addresses of family and friends serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the team ended up with a long list of soldiers. Once the service activities were confirmed, the captains began the logistics and outreach planning. "Our volunteers and contributors came from across MITRE, not just our division," Ward says. "The rest just grew organically through word-of-mouth."
Cooking and Cleaning for a Cause On September 9 and 10, team captain Al Seamon, lead information systems engineer, and Eric Etter, information systems engineer, led the two groups that covered the morning shifts at DCCK. They had their work cut out for them. For four hours, they chopped, diced, sliced, baked, boiled, and opened. The team on the first day assisted the DCCK staff in making 2,000 servings of goat curry and rice, opened and sorted 300 cans of beans and spinach, made 600 salads, and prepared 3,600 turkey and beef breakfast sandwiches. The volunteers on the second day made more than 800 sandwiches to distribute to homeless men and women living in D.C., helped make 1,000 servings of seafood stew, manually opened 200 cans of tuna, and made more than 100 pizzas. Each group prepared 4,000 meals for the organization—8,000 in total. On September 11, a team of 15 volunteers made improvements to a group home operated by CR, which purchases large houses and refurbishes them so that severely handicapped adults can live in a home. "We had an indoor and an outdoor team," explains Ward, who served as team captain for the clean-up effort. "Some did painting; others did yard work." The indoor group prepped and painted six rooms. The outdoor group cleared out vegetation and overgrowth, laid 150 bags of mulch, and cleared out the patio and courtyard common areas. Along with another group helping that day, the MITRE team contributed toward an estimated $5,000 of free labor.
Handled With Care The team captains for the care package donation collection—lead information systems engineers Mike Guthrie, Bridget Stiggers, and Karen Leonard—set a goal to send 20 packages to U.S. troops. They set $240 as the fundraising goal (20 boxes to be shipped at the APO flat rate of $12). As word of their effort spread, several employees across MITRE donated to the drive, and a few anonymous contributors made financial donations. Rob Jensen, executive director of MITRE's Center for Transforming Health, offered to personally match the combined contributions of the mission area. As a result, Jensen's group contributed over $1,000 toward the effort. By the morning of September 11, donation boxes placed throughout MITRE's Rappahannock building, the MITRE main campus, and other D.C. and N.J. area work locations overflowed with items for the packing team to assemble into care packages: snack foods, hygiene products, books, magazines, shower shoes, and other items most of us take for granted. Once completed, the transport team delivered the boxes to the post office and shipped them to Army and Marine COs and individual soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the end, the Enterprise Systems Engineering and Integration division shipped 114 care packages and collected $2,500. Each package contained a note:
Five days later, a soldier who had received one of the packages contacted MITRE through our public website. The message read:
Three weeks, three teams, and lots of elbow grease helped brighten lives—locally and internationally. —by Karina H. Wright Page last updated: November 19, 2009 | Top of page |
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