Brunch is popular with us Kars4Kids employees. It’s not just the bagels and lox. It’s about watching kids grow into productive adults. You see, we often have former participants in our programs speak at these events. This week, it was Tiffany*, who became very emotional when she stood to speak at an employee brunch. It took her in fact, several moments and tries until she could get the words out.
Now a wife and the mother of four beautiful children, Tiffany really believes that our charity changed the trajectory of her life, making her the success woman she is today. The way Tiffany tells it, things could have been very different but for the support she and her family received from our charity.
This particular brunch where Tiffany spoke is an annual Kars4Kids tradition. You probably know that our home office is in the United States. In our efforts to provide service 24/7, however, we have customer service teams manning the phones in varied parts of the world. For this reason, once a year the US-based Kars4Kids team visits an overseas team and holds a brunch event. It’s nice for everyone to get to know each other and to hear about the work we do in our respective locations.
Part of the tradition of the annual overseas brunch is having our mentors and educators give talks about their work, and share stories of the children and families they work with. Sprinkled in with these talks are firsthand accounts by young adults like Tiffany, of their experiences with our charity growing up. It’s a thrilling experience to hear them speak. It’s not uncommon for brunch participants to say that watching kids grow from year to year—thanks to the work of Kars4Kids—is more satisfying even than the delicious buffet and company.
Refreshed and Inspired
Our customer service representatives always leave the annual brunch refreshed and inspired to work even harder at providing the best possible service to our donors. Because better service means more donations. Which means more young people like Tiffany served with our special brand of mentoring and education.
While Tiffany’s success story as she relates it, show just how much time and effort goes into our work with kids, this time there was a twist. It seems that one of the overseas Kars4Kids employees attending the brunch had once toured our summer camp, TheZone, to gain a better understanding of our mission and purpose. While at TheZone, most of the campers had little to do with this employee, and why should they? They were there to have fun at camp, not strike up conversations with Kars4Kids employees.
But one camper did, in fact, reach out to the visiting employee. That camper was Tiffany, in her final year at TheZone, her eighth. Tiffany came up to the employee, introduced herself, and asked if the employee, we’ll call her Mrs. Jenkins, to see if she needed anything.
Okay, so Tiffany is a nice girl, and did a nice thing.
Brunch Talk: Kindness to a Stranger
But Tiffany’s special brand of kindness continued to shine through during the entirety of Jenkins’ stay. When Jenkins ran into Tiffany on her way to the camp banquet, Tiffany softly called out, “Model in the house!” making Jenkins feel really good about her appearance. Jenkins had dressed up in honor of the special evening and she never forgot Tiffany’s kindness to her, a stranger.
Which is why, when Tiffany got up to speak at the brunch, Mrs. Jenkins felt her eyes tear up. Jenkins recognized in this wonderful young woman the warm and welcoming young girl she’d known at TheZone camp, a girl so obviously filled with marvelous potential. It was clear to Jenkins, there among the Kars4Kids employees at the brunch, that Tiffany had realized her potential, at least in part thanks to our charity.
Jenkins left the brunch determined to work even harder at her desk job, in order to help further young people. Lots of them.
There are a lot of customer service people out there, for a lot of companies but not every customer service representative can say that the work they do helps children and impacts the future? Our Kars4Kids employees come to work in the morning knowing that the work they do has wider implications. Not just for the kids we mentor and guide to successful adulthood, but for society as a whole. Because what are kids like Tiffany, if not our tomorrow?
Watching kids grow by way of this annual event, underscores the importance of our charity on behalf of society. The generosity of our donors is helping us help children; and Tiffany stands as tangible proof that Kars4Kids is making a difference. Every car that is donated to our charity goes toward creating a better tomorrow for the kids and for us all.
*Not her real name
