Growing up, I have always been taught that you can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. That is a sentiment that the Schneider Transportation Management (STM) team in Chicago has taken to heart. The STM team is made up of men and women who recognize how fortunate they are. While we face the rigors of life, we try to remind ourselves that we have roofs over our heads, jobs to put food on our plates and people around us to support our constant personal and professional growth.
With this in mind, STM posed a question: “How can everyone here help someone?” I want to take this time to recognize the efforts and work that my fellow STM associates have put in to answer that question. With the help of the Chicago Culture Club lead by Alix Bernhardy, the Chicago STM office has a consistent outlet to give back. Every year the Culture Club uses the holiday season to give associates a chance to play Santa — collecting donations from the office for the Ann and Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital.
For the past four years, the STM Chicago team has come together to donate over 500 toys per year to children in the hospital. The teams either individually purchase toys for assigned age groups or donate money to be put toward the toy drive.
The holidays aren’t the only time we give back. Allison Toussaint, Sarah Rice and Ryann Beck assist through the year as well, collecting food for the Chicago Food Pantry, gathering clothes from associates for the Chicago Homeless Shelter and leaning on Nicole Goldfarb and Shannon Uselding of the STM Account Management team to raise money for Breast Cancer and Prostate Cancer awareness. Dave Moseley even kicks in by urging all of the men in the office to do their best Tom Selleck impression and grow out their mustaches in support of Movember with an end-of-month social gathering in which the proceeds go towards the Movember fund to fight Prostate Cancer.
“You can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” I want to thank Alix, Sarah, Nicole, Shannon, Dave, Allison, Ryann and the rest of the STM Chicago team for their consistent efforts to give back to the community and help someone — they fit right in with Schneider’s charitable giving culture.
This holiday season gave us the chance once again to play Santa, and just as Mr. Duncan did in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, we will bring these toys over to the Children’s Hospital this year — and no Harry or Marv will be there to stop us. When we do, we will remind ourselves that a little bit of extra work can help bring a smile to a child’s face. Whether it brings them joy for a lifetime, a year, a day or one fleeting moment, it is a small contribution that we cannot repeat enough.
