Making Spirits Bright for Over 60 Children This Holiday Season

The holiday season is a special time at NYCM Insurance. Each year, we look forward to bedecking our offices with cheerful decor, celebrating with our employees and participating in several giving back initiatives.

Our dedication to community is inherent to who we are; we know that we are where we are today because of local support. Because of this, we strive year-round to show appreciation for our hometowns, but especially enjoy doing so during the holiday season. One of our favorite traditions stems from the employees based in our Sherburne office.

Twenty years ago, employees realized the need to help fellow community members during the holiday season. Realizing that holidays can be a difficult time for many of our neighbors, the Christmas Cares Committee was formed. Every year, the committee partners with local Sherburne-Earlville Central School, Unadilla Valley Central School and Catholic Charities to identify families in need before a call for volunteers is sent throughout the office. Employees sign up to shop for children, working to make their holiday seasons as special as possible. Gift cards are also supplied to families to use toward purchasing a holiday meal. Amounts spent on families are then matched by NYCM Insurance.

Through fundraising efforts, the Christmas Cares committee raised over $3,200 this year; an amount which was then matched by NYCM for a total of almost $6,400 to be used toward gifts and gift cards for family meals. 

We’re ecstatic to be helping 24 families this holiday season and feel joyful knowing that our efforts will be helping 61 children have a bright Christmas morning. Our fundraising efforts allowed us to spend $82.00 per child and give each family a $50 gift card to be used on dinner. Each family was also given a box of candy to make the holidays extra sweet.

Like a troupe of Santa’s elves, we had 13 employees use their paid volunteer time to aid in shopping for gifts this year; a feat that took nearly six hours as our employees had to make sure they were addressing every child’s Christmas list! 

Once the shopping was complete, employees at the Sherburne office also volunteered their time before and after work, and during lunch to wrap all of the presents. We even had some retirees that came in to assist!

“My favorite part of giving back is considering the impact. Sixty one kids will have a great Christmas because of every single employee in the Sherburne office, along with a generous matching donation by the company,” said Employee Relations Coordinator and committee member Rebecca Kirby.

“Everyone contributes to this outcome by participating in our fundraising efforts; by buying a car wash, or lunch on a salad bar day, or by purchasing a raffle ticket for our Pumpkin Patch raffle drawing. All of these small acts of kindness add up to giving 24 families a Christmas that they otherwise may not have had.”

Read more about the fundraising efforts that went into this initiative by clicking on the button below.