August 11, 2015

By Cyndia Robinson

Aug. 8 was a total blast for me. I’d have to tell you about my company to begin my story, so let’s start here:

As an intern at Meemic, I was encouraged to join the volunteer committee that had recently been developed.  Eager to participate, I signed up and attended the first meeting, where the leader, Jeff, explained to us what we’d be doing as a group for our upcoming project.

This project’s goal was working with Humble Design, a group that works with shelters to provide furnishings, accessories, toys and home décor for families moving into low-income housing. Jeff showed an elaborate video, which played on my emotions specifically, and told us how Humble Design works to give back to the community. Since most of these families are coming out of shelters and working with programs to help them get back on their feet, Humble decided to help with the rest. Jeff informed us that we’d be helping families by furnishing three houses!

So we got our minds together to think of ideas to help fundraise enough money to furnish these houses and came up with a great plan to have a hot dog lunch and bake sale fundraiser! Over the course of a month, with employee donations and the fundraiser, we were able to raise more than $4,500—and thanks to Meemic COO Brad Roeber, who matched $2,500, we were able to raise more than $7,000 total.

We were ready to work!



On Saturday, Aug. 8, a Meemic team of 30, including myself, gathered at the Humble Design warehouse for a meeting to go over our organized plan of execution. Since we were furnishing three houses, we split into teams and loaded our cars full of furniture, lamps, bedding, toys and décor.



Once we arrived at the houses, each team split up to go to their assigned house. At my house, the first thing that we began to do was clean. The house was a bit dusty and needed a good sweeping so we started by sweeping the bedrooms and living room. While I began cleaning the kitchen, other in-house members of my team began organizing and decorating the rooms. The outside members of my team were tending to the lawn by raking, weed whacking and sweeping debris. After a break for a hot dog lunch around noon, we all got back to work, and over the course of five hours, we finished decorating the houses in time to reveal to each family!

 

As overwhelmed as these families were, we were, too, because we had put so much work into turning each house into a warm and welcoming home. After putting up “Welcome Home” signs to officiate the reveal, we showed each family their new home. The family whose home that I helped decorate was a family of three. The mother, father and daughter were extremely excited and surprised at their completely furnished house. The little girl was more than ready to play with her new toys in her bedroom. The parents loved their new home, and we even left them a few treats near the fridge! The result was absolutely beautiful. This was for sure the best Saturday that I’ve had this year.

  

Cyndia Robinson is Meemic's eCommerce Intern. She's a student at Oakland University.