Houston (USA)
The Houston Charity Committee (HCC) held its
first meeting on February 9, 2009 and has seen great support and
dedication from the Houston staff thus far. The HCC represents the
charitable wishes of the office as well as liaises with the
Trafigura Foundation for matching of raised funds and/or full
sponsorship for projects. The committee meets about twice a
month to discuss ongoing fundraising efforts, new proposals and
brainstorm for further charitable endeavours
in the Houston Community.
HCC Members (from left to right): Marc Dickson,
Christian Diaz, Chris Scott, Stephanie Rau, Julie Young,
Jonathan Brown, Allyson Stone, Bianca Roberson, Ericka Lehrmann and
Daniel Zhao.
Projects Supported by the HCC:
Teach For America
Houston (link to http://www.teachforamerica.org/)
Ronald McDonald House (link
to http://www.rmhc.org/)
Lee High School, (link to
http://www.leenextstepfund.org/)
Fundraising Activities Organised by the
HCC
The
HCC’s most proud moment came in the form of an invitation from the
Ronald McDonald House to be the title sponsor of Houston’s first
10k race!!! We are happy to have two members, Christian Diaz
and Chris Scott, on the board and 2010 will be jammed packed with
putting on this monumental event! http://www.rmhhomerun.com/
SUSAN G. KOMEN:
RACE FOR THE CURE- BREAST CANCER 5K RUN (OCTOBER
2009)
On 3rd October 2009, 15 members of the
Houston team together with partners and children took part in
the Susan G Komen breast cancer 5k run through the surrounding
streets of the downtown Houston area.
The run raised more than $3M for the cause
and the Trafigura team raised over $17,000 in less than 2 weeks, a
phenomenal achievement considering this was the first event the
office group had taken part in - particular praise goes to Ashok
Mani and David Loane for their tremendous efforts in extracting
about $8,000 between them alone.
Of the funds raised, around $10,000 went
directly to the Susan G Komen Charity http://www.komen-houston.org/
and the remaining $7,000, plus the Trafigura Foundation matching
amount will be used by the Houston Charity Committee to fund new
projects with the Lee High School and to take the lead sponsors
role in the inaugural 2010 Ronald McDonald House Houston 10k run
which will take place next December http://www.rmhhouston.org/.
Watch this space for an update on
the progress of the RMHH run plans and get your running shoes out -
we would love to see participation from offices around the
world.
DINNERS AT THE RONALD McDONALD HOUSE
(JUNE/NOVEMBER 2009)
HCC has hosted two dinners for the families
staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Houston, first was a pizza
night and the second was a fun BBQ. Families come from all
across Texas to stay at the house with their children, who are
recovering from major surgeries or cancer treatments. The house is
meant as a peaceful place where the children can recover in a
medical environment, but also be close to their immediate families
and lead as normal a life as possible while still having access to
medical care.
The families have to fend for themselves
during their time at the house and one way that an organization
such as ourselves can help is by providing such small things as a
meal at dinner time.
Since our collaboration with the House we have also renewed all the
kitchen dishwashers and supplied hypo-allergenic vacuum cleaners to
all 50 rooms at the house. We are also now putting together an
inaugural 10k run through Houston with RMHH as the primary
recipient of the funds raised.
CHRISTMAS GIFTS
FOR FRANKLIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (DECEMBER 2008/09)
Franklin Elementary is an underprivileged
school where the majority of the students are enrolled in the Fresh
Start Program, designed for non-English speaking students so they
can be brought up to the proper reading level and subsequently
succeed in the US School System. The Houston office has
organized a toy drive for the past two Christmas seasons. In
2008, the HCC collected enough gifts for four Pre-Kindergarten
classes at the elementary school and in 2009 was able to supply the
entire Pre-Kindergarten program, total of 70 students with a gift
of their choice! We not only got nearly 100% office
involvement but also recruited a Santa Clause (Pat Fitzgibbon) and
an Elf (Allyson Stone) to deliver the gifts to the children. This
is a project the HCC is planning on making an annual event and
can’t wait to expand our giving scope down the road.