April 12, 2016

Deloitte Consulting Bears Gifts for Friends First Mentees

From soap and toothpaste to jelly beans and chocolate eggs, the Easter baskets prepared by friends from Deloitte Consulting were overflowing by the time the Samaritans had finished their work. The gifts were for the children in our Friends First mentoring program, and contained everything our young people might want or need.

The volunteers were led by Mercy Home Associate Board member Brittany Neisewander, who is a member of the Deloitte Chicago Consultant Technology Advisory and Action Committee (CTAAC) and a consultant at Deloitte. The CTAAC organizes activities as a way for members to connect with the Chicago community when returning from weekly client visits, making special effort to support nonprofit and charity organizations throughout the city.

“I thought it would be a great idea to leverage my connection with Mercy Home,” said Neisewander, “and to do an event where my colleagues can come in and learn about Mercy Home and the mission and the work that Mercy does, and at the same time we could give back in a different way.”

With the help of Mercy Home’s director of corporate and volunteer relations, Dee Atkins, Neisewander, and 11 CTAAC members were able to spend a day at our boys campus creating Easter baskets for our Friends First mentees. The group made sure to include plenty of toiletries and other necessities for our kids—along with a few treats, too.

“We tried to focus on stuff that [the children] would use daily,” said Neisewander. “We wanted to make sure that we were providing something that was essential to the kids.”

As a way of thanks for their kindness, Dee gave the group a tour of the boys campus, even taking them into Campbell Home, one of our residential programs.

“Dee gave us an excellent tour of the facilities,” said Neisewander. “I would say the coolest part about it was the way that Dee told the story of the kids and how the facilities helps with their therapy…She explained how the music room is a buffer for a therapist to use when they’re talking with a child about a trauma that they’ve experienced.”

The tour was especially impactful for several CTAAC members from India, where many major cities lack sufficient support for children in need.

“[Our Indian colleagues] just were stunned,” said Neisewander. “They give out food to people in India, but the idea of holistically healing a person doesn’t really exist. So they were just taken aback by the level of care that each of the kids receive at Mercy.”

One CTAAC member from India, Abha Sharma, expressed her wishes for an organization similar to Mercy Home in India, and felt inspired by the tour to look into more ways to give to hurting boys and girls in India.

Neisewander also thanked Mercy Home on behalf of her colleagues, expressing gratitude that “we were able to come and contribute in some way.”

“I think [volunteering at Mercy Home] adds purpose to our work,” she said. “I like being able to share our Deloitte resources with Mercy as much as we can.”

Thank you to Brittany Neisewander, Abha Sharma, and all of the CTAAC members for their critical support of our kids!