In December of 2009, Bluepoint Solutions held two end-of-year initiatives to give back to the community. First, we scheduled, hosted and promoted a Red Cross Blood Drive. Additionally, a food drive lasting the entire month of December offered Bluepoint employees another way to contribute.
Bluepoint CEO and founder, Hal Tilbury, is a regular donor with his rare blood type and suggested a company-sponsored drive earlier in the year. Before sending a Blood Mobile on-site, The Red Cross requires a minimum number of blood donation appointments. So Bluepoint started promoting the drive in mid-November, both internally and externally, by distributing flyers to the surrounding business community. After our team secured the minimum number of appointments, we were able to schedule the Blood Mobile Blood Drive on December 16th. The Blood Mobile parked in front of Bluepoint’s Vista, CA office and handled donations from 23 volunteers—18 Bluepoint employees, 2 employee family members who joined us just for the drive and 3 donors from the surrounding business community. Those numbers included several first-time donors, all of whom successfully completed their donation. All of our first-time donors have committed to contributing again in the future! Our HR Specialist, Anastasia Tilbury, spent the morning making Belgian waffles with strawberries and whipped cream—a great way to keep our blood sugar levels up!
Given the success of the event, we are pleased to schedule an additional two drives in 2010.
Meanwhile, Bluepoint employees gathered canned and packaged foods during our month long food drive for the Community Resource Center in Encinitas, CA to help with their annual Holiday Basket program. The program offers food and other essentials to North San Diego County residents in need. It served 5,464 individuals this past year, including over 3,000 children. In addition to food, the Holiday Basket program allows the Community Resource Center to distribute toiletries, bedding, diapers and clothing. Each child also receives a toy.
Bluepoint focused on collecting baby food and breakfast food, but all types of food were donated. The team enthusiastically emptied their pantries of essentials and shopped for new things—often sharing tips with each other about sale items at local stores. As a result, 165 canned and packaged foods were donated.
Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to promote, donate and support both the blood and food drives!
