On July 14, East Harlem got a makeover as more than 600 New York-based Digitas employees gathered to renovate and refurbish 10 community and child care centers run by the Union Settlement Association, East Harlem’s largest and longest-serving nonprofit social services organization.
Community Service Day (CSD), as we refer to the annual outing, is an integral part of our agency culture at Digitas. Over the years, we’ve contributed to a variety of local organizations. This year, we chose to work with Union Settlement, in great part because their good work extends throughout the community – from child care to senior care to adult education.
600 Digitas employees, 300 gallons of paint, 277 plants, 40 garden boxes, 25 carpet tiles and eight hours later, Union Settlement’s high-traffic facilities were completely renovated and revamped to benefit the thousands of people who use the buildings every day. The labor, donations and fundraising services provided by Digitas enabled a year’s worth of renovation, decoration and outdoor installation projects.
David Nocenti, Executive Director of Union Settlement Association, attested to the renovations. “The transformation of our facilities in just an eight-hour period was simply amazing. From the freshly-painted rooms, to the beautiful new murals, to the new playground equipment, to the stunning new plantings in the two gardens, to the new stage and tool shed and staff lounge furniture and art room lockers, to the entire day of activities in Jefferson Park, we feel like the very lucky recipients of our own ‘Extreme Makeover’ (except that we did not have to move out for a week while it happened!”
CSD is a powerful example of what can be accomplished when a company’s employees work together for a common cause. Digitas holds CSDs throughout its North American offices, and I’m excited for our upcoming projects in both our Stamford and Atlanta regions.
The dedicated and giving Digitas NY CSD leadership team included Stephanie Dodd, Jesse Gustafson, Meghan Rose, Ashley Swartz, Evan Tessler and Natalie Torres.
Joanne Zaiac is the President of the New York, Stamford, Atlanta region at Digitas.
