Yesterday I had the opportunity to participate in Citrix’s Global Day of Impact with a team made up of 18 colleagues from various departments — sales, marketing, analytics, customer support and facilities. We were able to take an entire day off of work to serve in our local community, and we partnered with Rebuilding Together of the Triangle. This organization believes that everyone deserves to live in a safe and healthy home. Its focus is to provide critical repairs, accessibility modifications and energy efficient upgrades to low-income homes and community centers at no cost to service recipients.

We arrived at Mr. and Mrs. Matthew’s house first thing in the morning. The couple is in their late 80s and has been very active in their community throughout their lives. Recently Mr. Matthews, a WWII veteran, had a stroke. He is currently in rehab, and Mrs. Matthews is living in the home by herself. There were several critical repairs that needed to be made to get the house back to a healthy environment for Mr. Matthews’ return.

One of my favorite things about working for Citrix is the fact that every employee is given two paid days off a year to volunteer with a community organization in need. In Q2 of every year, Citrix launches a worldwide corporate citizenship initiative, called the Global Day of Impact, where employees in each office organize group volunteer dates. This year, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to organize a volunteer date at Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities.

Founded in 1969, Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities provides educational, residential, therapeutic and family support services to children and adults with special needs. The Center’s goal is to provide the individuals it serves the opportunity to maximize their abilities in a loving, nurturing environment. I first heard about TLC through a local charity organization called Band Together, which uses the power of live music to raise funds and awareness for a partnering nonprofit – this year, being TLC – and organizes the largest charitable music festival in NC every year. Citrix ShareFile is a sponsor of the Band Together main event featuring Lyle Lovett this year, so it was an obvious decision to partner with TLC for a GDI date as well.

This past Saturday, 11 ShareFile employees shaved their heads in support of St. Baldrick’s Foundation. St. Baldrick’s funds childhood cancer research throughout every stage of the process, impacting children treated at more than 215 children’s hospitals throughout the United States. We were proud to join hundreds of shavees and supporters at Napper Tandy’s Irish Pub in Raleigh, NC for their annual fundraising event.

Ten ShareFile employees have volunteered to have their heads shaved in support of St. Baldrick’s Foundation. St. Baldrick’s funds the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers. Pledging to shave in exchange for donations has become a fun way for our employees to get involved in raising money and awareness for a great cause.

Prior to deciding to partner with St. Baldrick’s, we were presented with the facts about childhood cancer- and they’re devastating. More children are lost to cancer in the U.S. than any other disease. Before reaching their twentieth birthdays, about 1 in every 300 boys and 1 in 333 girls will have cancer. Worldwide, a child is diagnosed every 3 seconds.* These statistics were eye opening to us, and we realized we want to do something to help support the research for a cure.

Here at ShareFile we have been running a Food, Toy and Clothing Drive to benefit various organizations throughout the area during the holidays. The drive started about two weeks ago, and I am excited to announce the final results.

We set up trees throughout the office for each category of donations- food, clothing, toys and also a money tree for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. It was great to see the trees being filled as the days passed by. Each time an employee donated to a particular tree, they received an ornament with their name on it to hang on the tree. They also placed their donated items under the tree.

For the food tree, we collected non-perishable food items to be donated to the Raleigh Branch of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, which service 13 counties in central North Carolina. In the counties served by the Raleigh branch, over 233,694 individuals are at risk for hunger; 79,990 of those are children and over 11% are 65 years and older. Together, ShareFile employees donated 554 cans to the Food Bank.

One of the really cool things about being an employee at Citrix is the value that is placed on overall well-being. Citrix SimplyFit is a program with a mission to provide education, opportunity and development strategies to improve the health and well-being of all Citrix employees. This week, employees in the ShareFile office got the opportunity to participate in a health and wellness expo that was produced by SimplyFit. Employees from the SimplyFit team travel to Citrix offices all over the country to provide educational opportunities to fellow employees.

Did you know that the Food Bank of Raleigh serves over 233,694 people in the Raleigh area who are at risk for hunger? Of those at risk, 79,990 are children and 11% are over the age of 65. To fight this outrageous number, the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina is hosting Hunger Awareness Month. Throughout the month of September, the Food Bank is holding several events to raise money, food and awareness of hunger issues within our local community.

One of the events was a 24 Hour Telethon held on September 7-8 at the warehouse of the Food Bank of Raleigh. The telethon, hosted by Gregory Ng, the host of the popular web series FreezerBurns and Chief Strategy Officer at Brooks Bell, featured a live 24 hour stream of the Food Bank. There were a ton of activities at the telethon including a social media mixer, a “Morning Buzz” segment, a “Midnight Madness” volunteer activity, and interviews. The goal of the telethon was to raise $20,000 and 3,000 pounds of food.

Last Friday, 9 of us Citrites made our way over to a neighborhood in East Raleigh to do some work with Habitat for Humanity. Habitat is an organization that builds homes for qualified homebuyers that are sold for no profit to families. Habitat homes are designed to take on the look and feel of the neighborhoods in which they reside. Our team was assigned to install aluminum siding on one of these homes.

When I saw the house we were assigned to, I guessed we’d be done in 3 hours. However, I quickly learned there’s a difference between putting aluminum siding on a house, and correctly putting aluminum siding on a house. The “factory cut” edge should always be on top of overlapping pieces, seams shouldn’t line up, and the siding on one wall needs to line up with the siding on an adjacent wall. Needless to say, there was a lot of measuring, re-measuring, and leveling, but we eventually made quite a bit of progress all around the house.