More than 450 regional employees of BlackRock convened on the nation’s capital as part of the organization’s annual U.S. Wealth Advisory National Sales Workshop (NSW) to compete in a large-scale holiday book drive competition put on to raise books for Everybody Wins DC (EWDC).
The NSW book drive competition kicked off in September with a video from Martin Small, Managing Director of the U.S. Wealth Advisory, explaining the importance of philanthropic activity all while ramping up BlackRock employees to participate. More than 450 BlackRock employees from offices around the nation signed up to take part in the competition.
Employees were split into teams of 12, each representing each of EWDC’s Power Lunch schools. The competition was conducted in two phases:
- Phase 1: Book collection – From September to November, BlackRock employees collected brand new books for their schools.
- Phase 2: Book bundling – On Dec 3., all 12 teams met in the Capitol Hilton ballroom to assemble books into packaged bundles. In the bundles, students received 4 books of their choice. Books ranged from historical nonfiction to fantasy. Students also received school supplies (pencils, pens, pencil sharpeners, rules, markers, notepads) and Mad-Libs in a cool string backpack.
The Goal
BlackRock and EWDC set an ambitious goal to raise 3,500 books by the end of the book collection phase. In the first month BlackRock exceeded the initial goal with 4,000+, and by the end of the collection had raised 8,000 books, nearly doubling the goal.
“EWDC gave 4,000+ books last school year to our Power Lunch students. With this generous donation from BlackRock, EWDC can do much more to not only serve the students, but our schools and surrounding community. Everybody Wins!” says Jordi Hutchinson, Executive Director of EWDC
Later in the week, BlackRock and EWDC employees loaded delivery trucks and spent the morning delivering book bundles to each school, meeting school administrators and the students themselves. Principal Lundgren, was one of many EWDC supporters delighted by the generosity of BlackRock.
Check out a video of students opening their book bundles from BlackRock at Marie Reed Elementary. Three words: “All the feels!”
Special thank you to BlackRock for choosing EWDC as the beneficiary of this service project. Seeing the ear-to-ear smiles and hearing the shouts of excitement and gratitude from our students is what the giving season is all about.
View more photos from the event here.
