Give Back Get Back Archives - T-V-S Overcoming Challenges

TVS Employee Giving Tree

Dec 19, 2022 | News

Transylvania Vocational Services (TVS) hosted the third annual “Give Back, Get Back” employee donation event over the last three months. This year TVS offered a new internal donation event! The TVS Giving Tree supported employees with children 18 years or younger, based on the traditional Angel Tree.

“The Giving Tree was a way for us to give back to TVS employees specifically,” said HR Specialist Kaydee Hopkins. “Employees give so much to the donation drives, we wanted to help them out as well.”

A total of 22 children were anonymously signed up by TVS parents to receive gifts. Each child had two ornaments on the tree; one for clothing and hygiene items and the other for toys. All 44 ornaments were taken from the tree by other TVS employees.

All gifts were wrapped and handed back out to the correct TVS employee the first week of December.

“This donation drive embodies the spirit of giving, which is exactly what this time of year is all about. It brings people together and builds on our family atmosphere within the company,” said Hopkins. “We all came together to support each other with this drive and that’s a really beautiful thing. It makes me so proud to be a part of TVS.”

The Giving Tree was the last of the holiday donation drives. TVS employees also donated 1,665 items to the local Bread of Life and 3,342 items to S.A.F.E. of Transylvania County. Both of these donation events surpassed expectations and donation amounts from last year.

“They were so excited when they saw the amount of donations. These wonderful community resources are supported by donations and having a company of our size give back is really special,” said HR Generalist Catherine Tinsley.

To cap off the Give Back, Get Back donation drives, TVS employees receive raffle tickets for the Thanksmas Raffle based on the number of items donated. This year employees were able to win a PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, multiple sizes of smart TVs, gift cards, and more.

TVS employees donate Back to School supplies!

Aug 2, 2022 | News

TVS employees continue to give back to our community! Over the past two weeks, TVS employees donated almost 1600 school supply items to the Sharing House.

The Back to School program provides free school supplies for all low-income students (K-12) living in Transylvania County. The Sharing House estimates to serve 600+ children in 2022!

“This school supply drive was very successful; we easily doubled the amount of donations we received the previous year. TVS employees show a lot of support for our donation drives, my favorite thing about each of our donation drives is seeing the employees so willing to give back to our community!” said Catherine Whitley, HR Generalist. “We decided to host the school supply drive again this year because of who it is benefitting. We all get to see the benefits of this drive in our community and kids. Helping them have a successful school year is a great feeling.”

The largest amounts of donated items included 164 rulers, 135 spiral notebooks, 126 packs of #2 pencils, and 116 packs of Crayons. However, TVS employees also donated hand sanitizer, dry erase markers, disinfecting wipes, and much more.

“This donation drive is our 2nd largest since TVS began donating back in the fall of 2020! Our record is 1700 hygiene items which were donated to S.A.F.E. in 2021,” Whitley said. “Though we didn’t quite pass that during this drive, we are thrilled with our employee participation!”

Prior to the school supply drive, TVS employees also donated dog food to the Labor of Love Pet Rescue during March of 2022.

“It is such a nice feeling being able to give back to this dog rescue,” said HR Administrative Assistant Kayde Hopkins. “Our support with this donation helps fosters care for the pups before they reach their forever homes.”

The total donation equaled just over 40 bags of dry dog food, over 40 bags of treats, and 3 cases of wet food.

Looking ahead for the rest of the year, TVS plans to host the 3rd annual “Give Back, Get Back” donation event. While the donation drives have not been released, TVS employees can expect to have three more ways to give back to their community.

Last year, TVS employees donated to Life Changers Outreach, S.A.F.E., and Operation Christmas Child.

TVS “Give Back, Get Back” 2021 donation drive ends with 100 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child

Nov 23, 2021 | News

The final event of the TVS “Give Back, Get Back” donation drive continued the pattern of exceeding expectations! TVS employees donated more than expected and blew the donation goals out of the water!

For the final drive, TVS employees brought in 2,500 items to be stuffed into shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. This year’s goal was to stuff 75 shoeboxes, and TVS employees actually helped fill 100 boxes! The boxes were evenly divided into 50 for girls and 50 for boys in the year range of 5-9. Last year, TVS employees filled 50 boxes.

“The best part is seeing how TVS employees come together for a good cause. Our employees never cease to amaze,” said TVS Benefits and Recruitment Specialist Catherine Tinsley. “As I was stuffing the boxes, all I could think about was how excited a child is going to be when they get to open their box.”

Each shoebox was able to include: a toothbrush, hair brush, wash cloths, tissues, Band-Aids, Chapstick, socks, pencils, glue sticks, and a colored writing item. In total, each box has 20-25 items!

“It was really neat to see what different items employees would bring in,” Tinsley said. “You could tell by the donations that some people really wanted to make sure that the children had clothes and some really wanted to make sure they had school supplies, so it was just cool to see what each person thought was important.”

On top of the generosity of TVS employees, one TVS individual pledged to cover the shipping cost for the original 75 shoeboxes. TVS happily stepped in to cover the extra 25 boxes. “Although this individual wants to remain anonymous, TVS is extremely grateful for this person’s willingness to give back,” said Tinsley.

The shoeboxes were dropped off at Wesleyan Church before being going to Charlotte, NC and finally shipped out to their final destinations. All the extra items that did not fit into the boxes are being donated to SAFE, Inc of Transylvania County.

TVS employees donate 1700 hygiene items to SAFE

Nov 9, 2021 | News

In the second donation of the 2021 ‘Give Back, Get Back’ event, Transylvania Vocational Services (TVS) employees collected over 1,700 hygiene items to donate to SAFE of Transylvania County.

“We are really touched by this donation,” said Director of Human Resources at SAFE, Patience Camp. “It is the smallest things that mean so much when you have very little or nothing. The people we help appreciate these items and it means a lot to know that people care, even though they cannot voice it.”

SAFE is a community leader in eliminating domestic and sexual abuse through support, prevention and outreach. The SAFE team knows that ending domestic and sexual abuse builds stronger families, economies and communities.

Items donated included hundreds of tooth brushes, deodorant, hair brushes, soap, body lotion, feminine products and more.

“This donation will allow us to use funds for other things needed such as food in our food pantries and operational items,” said Camp. “It is just amazing and we truly appreciate this.”

Currently, this hygiene donation event has collected the most items ever in a TVS donation.

“It makes me super proud to work at TVS and watch employees give so generously,” said TVS Administrative Assistant Kayde Hopkins. “I am ecstatic with the donation and have enjoyed giving back to SAFE the way they give back to the community.”

The annual ‘Give Back, Get Back’ donation event also donated 1,300 food items to Life Changers Outreach of Pisgah Forest in early October and is currently collecting items to package 75 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

TVS kicks off annual “Give Back, Get Back” donation events by donating 1300 food items

Oct 19, 2021 | News

TVS is happy to announce the success of the first donation event of the 2nd annual “Give Back, Get Back” drive. The donation event collected 1300 food items to be donated to Life Changers Outreach of Pisgah Forest!

“We had set a personal goal of beating last years donation amount of 800 items,” said TVS Benefits and Recruitment Specialist Catherine Tinsley. “It was amazing to see us blow that goal out of the water.”

Donations included boxes of cereal, macaroni and cheese, soups, pastas, canned veggies, and more. This year, TVS donated 5 cases of Mountain Maid Devil’s Food Cake and 5 cases Mountain Maid Pancake Mix to support the drive.

TVS began the “Give Back, Get Back” donation drives in 2020 as a way to help other organizations in the community, and beyond with Operation Christmas Child, during the pandemic. Due to COVID-19 these organizations were facing a decline in donations as many people were struggling themselves with learning how to survive during the pandemic.

TVS employees earn raffle tickets for donating items to the donation events. The tickets will be used in December to win a number of prizes.

“We enjoy seeing our employees rally together to donate goods. It is amazing to see what we can do as a company when we work together,” said Tinsley. “Even more so, we really enjoy giving away big-ticket items to everyone that helped us pull it all off.”

Last year, the “Give Back, Get Back” raffle included items such as Chromebooks, TV’s, air fryers, and more. While this year’s prizes have not been announced, they will be reflective of last years.

As the donation drives continue, employees are now collecting hygiene related items to be donated to S.A.F.E.’s Attic. As well as, collecting toys for Operation Christmas Child in November.