When I saw the house we were assigned to, I guessed we would be done in 3 hours. However, I quickly learned there’s a difference between putting vinyl siding on a house, and correctly putting vinyl 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.

The experience was really enjoyable and the work was rewarding. It was fun getting a chance to do an entirely different kind of work with fellow co-workers.  Habitat was very well organized and had plenty of folks on-hand to help instruct us. If you’re looking for a place to volunteer, I would recommend you check them out as there are lots of opportunities to get involved.

To view more of our volunteer work, visit the ShareFile Facebook page.

For those unfamiliar, Relay for Life is a fundraising event organized in communities across the globe by the American Cancer Society.  Participants camp out around a track, while members of each team take turns walking around the track for the duration of the event. Walkers honor the people in their life who have been affected by the disease – survivors, those who are fighting the disease, and those who have already lost the battle.  Relay is a family-friendly environment, catering to the entire community with an array of food, games, and activities to provide entertainment and fundraising.  With cancer now a leading cause of death in the world, money raised at the event goes towards research, treatment, and awareness of the disease.

The ShareFile Relay for Life team took part in fundraising efforts by holding a bake sale at our Raleigh office, raising $440 in one morning!  We also accepted personal donations prior to the event.  The night of Relay, we set up a campsite where we held a cornhole tournament for attendees to participate in, which was a success.  We also assisted with general logistics and the Kids Walk portion of the event, which included monitoring the bounce house for children and assisting with crafts and games.  The only downfall of the evening was the weather – it stormed off and on, causing the event to end early at 9 pm.

Despite the stormy weather, Relay for Life of Leesville/Brier Creek/RTP was an extremely successful event, raising an overall total of $136,440 for the American Cancer Society!  With every donation large or small, the American Cancer Society is one step closer to finding a cure.  We here at ShareFile are very honored to have helped Relay for Life as a part of our corporate citizenship initiative.

 Check out the photos below to see how much fun we had Relaying for a Cure!

Thanks to the encouragement to give back to the community, last week I had the opportunity to volunteer with Rebuilding Together of the Triangle for Citrix’s Global Day of Impact. Rebuilding Together is a nonprofit organization that provides free repairs to low-income homeowners, many of whom are disabled, elderly, or veterans. Each year, Rebuilding Together hosts National Rebuilding Day. On this day, 275,000 volunteers in towns and cities all over America tackle the sagging roofs, leaky pipes, shaky railings, peeling paint and rotting steps that plague low-income homeowners who don’t have the means to fix these problems. Volunteers revamp neighborhoods across the country by using supplies donated by national corporate sponsors and local businesses.

My fellow coworkers and I arrived at the home of Mr. Bell, a 91-year-old WWII veteran. Mr. Bell was very gracious to have volunteers help with him home maintenance. We each found a section of the house to start working on and began painting. We painted all day while listening to Elvis Presley Christmas music (with the exception of a short lunch break where Mr. Bell delivered ice cream sandwiches to each of us).

It was a great way to spend the day helping out in our local community. Just 10 employees were able to make an impact in an elderly gentleman’s life by simply dedicating time to help with some exterior maintenance. We all left covered in a little bit of paint, but enjoyed the day. If you are ever interested in helping out with Rebuilding Together,you can volunteer here.

Take a look at some of the pictures below.

Interested in looking at more pictures from our various volunteer events? Visit the ShareFile Facebook Page.

For this event, we traveled to SEEDS community garden in Durham to spend a day helping out. SEEDS is a great organization that gives city dwellers a place to grow vegetables on their own garden plot, and they also provide low-cost educational programs for kids. Our group was able to help the SEEDS staff with upkeep of the garden and structures so that visitors and gardeners can continue to enjoy it.

Our biggest task for the day was starting the update of the garden’s gazebo. Some of our volunteers got to use an auger drill to dig holes for new posts for the gazebo and for a new tool shed that will be coming soon this summer. For the less power tool inclined, there were plenty of other projects. We painted sealant on the garden’s beautiful, handmade gate, prepared a new planter for potatoes, and laid new mulch. It was hard work, but we had a great time!

Thank you very much to SEEDS for letting us spend the day in the garden! If you want to volunteer or learn more, check out the SEEDS website.

Keep an eye out for more information on our Global Day of Impact events, coming soon! To check out more pictures of Global Day of Impact at SEEDS, visit the ShareFile Facebook Page.

This past Saturday the ShareFile team had the opportunity to support a great cause, the Special Olympics of North Carolina. We raised money for the cause by participating in a 5K. Proceeds from this event went directly to the Special Olympics of NC in an effort to support the 38,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities that participate in the year-round sports programming. Together, the ShareFile participants raised over $600 for the Special Olympics of NC.

Check out a couple of group shots before and after the race. For more pictures of the event, visit our Facebook page.

The month starts on November 1^st and day one starts with a cleanly shaven face. For the remainder of the month, these men, better known as Mo Bros, become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November.  Here are some pics of our participants around the office throughout the month.

We’d like to know who you think has the best Mo so far (remember they have until Nov. 30^th):

To learn more about their efforts, check out their individual Mo pages:

Al

Chris

Dan

Geoff

Ian

Jes

Justin

Mark

Nate

Preston

Ryan

Businesses from around the Triangle were invited to participate in the event. Each business had the option to enter a team at one of three levels: Bronze, Silver or Gold. Events included shooting pool, putt-putt, football, wiffle ball, and other fun games. Participants enjoyed food donated by The Q Shack.

Check out some photos from the event.

The SHARE team had the opportunity to partner with Habitat for Humanity this past Saturday to help make a difference within our local community. The program we were involved with is called A Brush with Kindness, a locally-operated program serving low-income homeowners who struggle to maintain their homes. The program is designed to revitalize the appearance of the neighborhood and encourage connections within the community.

We were assigned a house to work on for the day where we provided exterior maintenance including painting, minor exterior repairs, landscaping and exterior clean-up. We had a great time helping out the homeowners and spending time together outside of the office. Even though some of us left the job site covered in paint, we truly feel like we helped make a difference within the community. We took a few pictures and some video footage to show our handyman skills!

In response to the storms, ShareFile partnered with Aversboro Road Baptist Church in Garner, NC to put together hygiene kits for victims of the storm. ShareFile employees spent time compiling hygiene kits with necessities such as: toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, shaving cream, etc. These items were then delivered to families who lost their belongings in the storm. Some ShareFile employees also volunteered this past Saturday to help with clean up efforts around North Carolina.

The month isn’t supported only by men around the world, women, also known as “Mo Sistas,” work to raise funds by getting friends and family to donate to the mustache-growing efforts.

This year, a group of ShareFile employees have banded together with Team RDU. As of today, Team RDU was the top team in the country with over $12,000 raised beating out teams in Boston and New York City! To take a look at our team page, you can go to MovemberRDU.

As Movember continues, we’ll be sure to post even more pictures of all the mustaches we have growing around the office. Stay Tuned!

A list of those in the office who are partipating in Movember:

Jesse
Alex
Dan
Jarrett
Ed
Nate
Geoff
Grady

Vote for your favorite ShareFile

Throughout the day, teams participated in a number of events, including a cornhole toss, ping pong, soccer and a hockey shootout. Some of the prizes our participants received included tickets to see the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, gift certificates to local Raleigh restaurants and a 3-year gym membership to Planet Fitness.

View pictures of the event and see the ShareFile team in action.

If your business would like to participate in our next event, please leave us a message on our Facebook Page.

This event is open to any local Raleigh businesses. Participants will compete in a variety of events, such as a wiffle ball home run derby, ping pong, a hockey shoot out and a cornhole toss. We also have local businesses donating food and awards for teams and individuals. Even better, all proceeds from the event will go to benefit Project HOPE, an international health education and humanitarian assistance organization.