TUNE Cares: how employees gave back in November, part II

To recap on our last TUNE Cares blog post, during the month of November, TUNE Cares introduced November to Remember, a company-wide charitable initiative. In an effort to achieve TUNE’s audacious goal of 100% company participation in community engagement before the end of 2016 — and to conclude the year with an impactful month of change-making — we presented TUNErs with a wide range of opportunities to engage, including donation drives, educational talks, street cleanups, and other causes close to TUNE employees’ hearts. We were blown away by the number of activities TUNErs participated in, thus, decided to split the blog post into two parts.

Read our earlier blog post highlighting the first part of November to Remember, and read on to learn about TUNErs around the world giving back to their communities throughout the month of November.

Giving Tree is back in Seattle and San Francisco

Following last year’s efforts, TUNE is collecting new toys and clothing through Childhaven’s Giving Tree Program and Childhaven’s Family Wishes Program. Childhaven is a local organization that provides support to families and healing to young victims of abuse, neglect, and trauma. Many of Childhaven’s families struggle to afford holiday gifts on top of the daily essentials, thus this Giving Tree Program allows us to host a tree filled with tags representing the wishes and needs of these children.

Berlin employees volunteering with Syrian refugees

In late November, the TUNE Berlin team visited a Syrian refugee shelter and  picked up a group of refugees to go ice skating. For most of the Syrian refugees, this was their first time on skates, which made their fearlessness even more impressive.

As our TUNEr Jenny in Berlin said, “It was a really fun day and showed us that, for the most part, refugees (many of which arrived in Germany over a year ago and for various reasons still don’t have the opportunity to work and live in Berlin autonomously) just want to connect with locals. For them, getting out of the camp to have a few hours of fun like this, is very much appreciated. As far as volunteering goes, helping out sorting clothes or giving out food is great, but sometimes all that’s needed is spending time together as equals and making positive memories. And the ice had us all bond that much quicker. We all went home with big smiles on our faces.”

Movember

The Movember Foundation raises money to research and raise awareness around prostate cancer, testicular cancer, mental health, and suicide prevention. This November, the TUNE Movember team took on a challenge bigger than anything they had faced in the past: could they raise $2,000? If we did, that initial $2,000 would be matched twice to become a total of $6,000. How could they resist?

The team got hairy, that much is certain, but things were looking pretty grim toward the last week of November. They were just shy of $800 total. Directly following the TUNE Cares happy hour, our co-founders, Lucas and Lee generously weighed in with a $1,000 donation, which put the team within a stone’s throw of their goal. As of the first week of December, the team has raised a grand total of $4,155 and there is another $2,000 worth of matching funds on the way! This means they have hit a minimum of $6,155 in donations this year.

Thank you to all of our team members for making 2016 a Movember to Remember, a round of applause for all those who donated to our cause, and a hearty congratulations to our trophy winners!

Tel Aviv bone marrow drive

Recently, a bone marrow drive was held throughout Israel in search for a match for a young father of three and a two year old boy, both named Adam. At the time, they were both in desperate need of a bone marrow transfer, but no matches had been found. TUNErs encouraged fellow colleagues and friends to participate in the drive, and from the time the drive was initially started, Adam, the father of three, announced he had found a match, which was his last hope of life. We’d like to take this time to thank all of the TUNE employees in Tel Aviv who participated in the drive and shared the message!

Volunteer spotlight: Kristin-Leigh Brezinski

“I volunteer for a few hours each month with Annex, a local theater on Capitol Hill, working box office for a few of their performances every cycle. This organization supports local artists and writers, and is financially accessible to the community.

I also volunteer with SIFF, the local nonprofit that puts on the Seattle International Film Festival every year and runs 3 independent cinemas year round showing a lot of cool/unusual/interesting movies you can’t find other places. They’re always looking for more volunteers — join me.”

Other local theaters near the office that always need volunteers include: Book-It Repertory Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare, and Seattle Repertory Theatre.

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Upcoming Events

IGNITE Spring Gala committee

IGNITE (Inspiring Girls Now In Technology Evolution) inspires girls to become the future technology leaders and innovators of our world. The organization has educated and empowered over 30,000 young women in middle school and high school grades to pursue education and careers in STEM since 1999. On March 24th, the second Annual Spring Gala will be held at the Museum of Flight, and several TUNErs have joined the Fundraising Committee to contribute to the events success.

Hanukkah care packages in Israel

During the week of Hanukkah our team in Tel Aviv will be collecting dry food packages donated by TUNERS for an elderly home in the city. At the end of this week they’ll drop off the packages that they collected, while visiting the people in the home, lighting the Hanukkah candles with them, and eating delicious “Sufganiot” (Israeli donuts, the traditional food of this holiday). Pictures to follow!

Seattle Pike Place Market Foundation

TUNE is very excited about the Pike Place MarketFront expansion! Progress on the project is on schedule which means the Market Foundation only has $2.7M left to raise. Looking for a way to give back to the community? Let’s help the Pike Place Market reach their goal.

On behalf of TUNE, we would like to thank all TUNErs for giving back to their community during the month of November and continuing that spirit into 2017.

Coming soon…TUNE Cares: A year in review.

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