Deloitte honors Anna’s Kindness by volunteering at A Precious Child

BROOMFIELD, COLO. — What’s a great way to kick off the first day of your work team’s annual meeting?

Fly into Denver in the morning, drop off your bags at the hotel, and then head straight out to help the less fortunate.

Anna’s dad, Michael, and 30 of his Deloitte co-workers from around the country spent Monday afternoon — the first day of their annual program meeting — focused on a special group of clients: the less fortunate families in the Denver area. To honor Anna’s Kindness, the team scheduled a volunteer work assignment at A Precious Child, a nonprofit in Broomfield, Colo. that offers programs to empower children to achieve their full potential. One of those programs, Precious Essentials, provides clothing, coats, shoes, toys, home goods and other items to children and their families who may be struggling with poverty or emergency situations.

Generous donations are dropped off at A Precious Child’s warehouse every day, and that is where Deloitte found itself Monday afternoon. After being given a tour of the large facility, the team members broke off into groups, with three of the groups in charge of determining which donated items — from clothing to housewares to toys — were good enough to be made available for families who came to A Precious Child to shop.

“It was really fascinating to see how generous people were, because I saw a lot of new stuff, which was great,” said Khalid Kark.

And those who were sorting had been given standards to follow by A Precious Child’s staff for what would be suitable for the storefront racks and shelves. Not everything that was donated made the cut.

“I loved how much how (A Precious Child) focused on providing an impactful experience in terms of high-quality items,” said Elizabeth Moore, “They made sure the experience was really meaningful to the person, and not leaving them feeling like they were getting hand-me-downs.”

Jackie Kirby agreed.

“The fact that the families get to come there and feel like they are empowered and can shop for high-quality items,” she added. “The way (A Precious Child) felt about the families was really genuine.”

Allen Qiu was on the team that was sorting clothes, and the afternoon struck a special chord with him.

“Growing up, my parents came (to this country) with literally nothing, and I wore those clothes, so it was kinda full circle,” he said.

The effort also touched Rachel Lebeaux, a new mother, who couldn’t help but think about fellow moms who not only leave A Precious Child with necessary items for their families, but perhaps a little peace of mind.

“I loved imagining what it would be like as a mother going through the baby clothes and feel like they just hit the jackpot,” she said. “Having all these things provided, it was just one fewer thing they needed to worry about.”

One group of Deloitte employees took the sorted clothes and hung them on hangars, which then went to the Deloitte team which organized those clothes on racks by size and gender. And for a program team whose day job supports technology executives at leading companies around the globe, the afternoon would not have been complete without at least one reference to tech.

“It feels like I’m working with unstructured data,” said Enoch Chang, as he patiently organized a whole box of plastic infant toys into separate bags based on … well … plastic fishies all go in one bag, plastic blocks go in another, etc…

The event at A Precious Child paired nicely with the mission of Anna’s Kindness, which connects middle school students with opportunities to serve the less fortunate in their communities.

In this case, the students were just a wee bit older. But just as enthusiastic.

“It was nice to have a shared mission and a shared experience,“ said Kirby.

“It was great working as a team in the community to impact so many lives, and to do it for one of our own,“ said Neil Lamis, who coordinated the volunteer event. “It was really sentimental.”

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