It will be hard not to notice the impacts that this year’s economic struggles will have on our communities during the holiday season.  We will all be paying more attention to our budget, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. With this in mind, many acts of community outreach have been in the forefront of some HOK employees at the Tampa office. I want to highlight some that are notable and tell them “Thank you, your hard work appreciated.”

I have mentioned in a previous post that Kim Frey has literally stepped up to the challenge and just participated in the Breast Cancer 3 Day over this last weekend. She has shared a few words about her experience…

“Despite record high temperatures and insanely high humidity, I crossed the finish line yesterday about 3:45pm!  I walked 47 of the 60 miles, which is much more than I thought I would do when I heard the weather conditions.  I’m sunburned and have heat rash in places, well I won’t go there. Physically from my ankles up, I feel surprisingly good.  I don’t plan on sleeping in a tent on a pool float any time soon, or ever again.  My feet?  Oh they are just pathetic.  Childbirth didn’t hurt as much as they do right now.  L

The outpouring of encouragement and support from you, and total strangers in the community is so much appreciated.  When the walkers think they just can’t walk another step, there’s an 11 year old boy in his front yard.  He’s giving out water and apples to say thank you for walking because his mother is battling breast cancer.  Yes, I shed a “few” tears this weekend!    

The walkers got all the kudos this weekend, but everyone in Tampa Bay is the hero’s.  We raised over $4,000,000 towards finding a cure for breast cancer.  Thank you again for all of your support, encouragement, prayers, and donations.  I’ll be back in the office tomorrow, maybe in slippers!”

If that wasn’t enough warm fuzziness, Kim and some others in the office that belong to the Leadership Tampa Alumni group also participated in a playground build for very deserving kids. They were among 200+ volunteers spent the previous Saturday building a playground along with picnic tables, planter boxes, games and much more for A Kids Place in Brandon.  The volunteers were encouraged to bring their own children to teach them the importance of giving back to their community.  The kids created Thank You boards for all the companies and groups involved in the event.  The group’s board is proudly displayed outside Kim’s office.

OK Kim… You are truly an example and many others around here have caught on!!!

Jillian Schultz is a part of “Team in Training”.  She will be running a ½ Marathon in honor of Leukemia and Lymphoma patients as well as helping to raise money to find a cure.  She has eagerly been collecting our personal “junk” and holding community sales in order to fundraise for the event which takes place in a few weeks. It was really nice of her to find a new home for the reindeer sweater grandma gave me in 1996- way to go! Please visit her site for more information:

SAVING LIVES ONE RACE AT A TIME 

http://pages.teamintraining.org/sun/StPeteHf09/jschultpoa

Sean Williams heads up AFH Tampa Bay, the local chapter of the Architecture for Humanity based out of San Francisco. Many in the office and others from local firms participate in the group and work with two local non profits currently, Green Florida a community gardening effort in St. Petersburg, specifically the “Paris Garden” (HOKer Anna Vasquez is heading up: http://green-florida.org) and Creative Clay an art gallery and studio for local artist which is looking for some Funding images for a new space. (HOKer Van Phrasavath is heading up http://www.creativeclay.org) The other project that AFH is working on is an Orphanage compound in Arandis, Namibia, Africa. For more info visit the website: www.afhtampabay.org/

And with the food season upon us, Bonnie Smith has once again organized the office can food drive that will benefit Metropolitan Ministries. We are in a competition across the office to see which team will collect the most cans. I suspect it will be a close race; last year we donated a few hundred pounds of food.  Many of us volunteer at this charity throughout this season, which has helped over 350,000 families in the Tampa metro area.

These are all amazing examples of how all of us can give this season. Our time is precious, but a holiday meal and the presence of an ill family member on one more holiday is so much more valuable.