Our Blog: where do you stand?

A Little Pizza Goes a Long Way

By: Julie Layton | 08/18/2011

Earlier this month, my colleague, Gretchen, wrote a post about Standing Partnership's sixth year of supporting the annual KidSmart Push for Pencils campaign, which provides 90,000 St. Louis-area children with the school supplies they need to have a successful school year. We are so proud of our annual tradition, and the happiness we bring to our city's teachers and school children in need simply by giving them the basic tools most of us took for granted as children.

Four years ago, we realized that though we supported Push for Pencils as an organization, we weren't engaging our whole team enough in the campaign. That's why a new tradition started in our office: the annual Push for Pizza lunch and bingo! It's a way to encourage all team members to contribute to Push for Pencils, while having a fun break from our daily routine. We celebrated this fun and delicious tradition in our office yesterday, Aug. 17, and once again our team did not disappoint.

The way it works is Standing purchases the pizza for the team as part of our campaign commitment, and we ask those who want to participate in the lunch to make a donation of $10 in cash or its equivalent in school supplies, and those who want to play bingo donate $1 per card (the more cards you have, the greater your chances of winning).  And as if the pride of calling out "bingo!" isn't enough, winners earn prizes-donated this year by Standing and our very generous vendor, Ronnoco. And it really pays off: the funds we raised and supplies we collected yesterday moved us even closer to our campaign goal.

You know what else was astounding? Dewey's Pizza--yum! Take a look at those fresh toppings! I'm getting hungry just looking at it. (Is it lunch time yet?)

Look at those intent faces! No, we're not taking a test. Our team really gets into playing bingo--it requires extreme concentration and listening skills...

...especially to keep up with our caller, Gretchen!

What's cool about this lunch is it brings our whole team together--that's our accounting manager, Susan Zumwinkel, manager, Maya Lunnemann, and president, Melissa Lackey.

As it turns out, though, it's not the pizza nor the bingo that brings everyone down the hall--it's the cause behind it: we love giving back to our community.

Our generous team is the reason why I am always so proud to work here!

Posted in Culture, Community Assistance