Serving

In my last post I wrote about the importance of taking the time to evaluate what your purpose is, and continually checking yourself to make sure you're on track. Navigating through this crazy journey we call life can be a little like running home from work, with your eyes closed. Now I now there's a time and a place for burying your head in the sand and working your tail off. Sometimes that's what it takes to ensure you stay afloat. You just have to remember to open your eyes every once and while, and reorient yourself- remember why it is you do what you do.

Recently I expressed to my assistant manager, Ben Arnold, that I felt like even though we were supporting various organizations in the community through sponsorships and small donations of food or money, we weren't creating the sort of impact I had hoped for. It was a crucial part of our initial planning that our business model included efforts to enrich our community in tangible and practical ways. Three years in, and I was less than satisfied with our efforts.

We decided to take action. There are plenty of charitable organizations in our community that do a lot of good. We new that it wouldn't make sense for us to start something from scratch. We also new that it takes a lot of volunteer power to keep these organizations running. We decided to form the Black & Brew "Community Dream Team," a group of our employees that would volunteer to serve in monthly community service projects. The goal was to enrich our community and the lives our employees in the process. Ben took the ball and ran with it.

I was a little worried about the response we would get from the employees. I mean we were asking them to take time out of their busy schedules to go work somewhere else.... for free! Shame on me for underestimating their spirit. We had so many volunteers, I had to turn a few down for our first project: a Habitat for Humanity house.

Here's a video I put together from our first project:



I'm so proud of our group. We've got a couple of projects coming up in March. We'll keep you posted!