In the spirit of giving back to its host city, the Healthcare Convention & Exhibitors Association (HCEA) featured a community volunteer activity, exhibit hall networking event and charity golf tournament at the 2014 HCEA Annual Meeting held June 21-24 in Cleveland.
Jeff Griffiths, HandsOn Northeast Ohio; Jan Ridgeway, Garden Valley Neighborhood House
In 2010, HCEA formed a new Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, a subcommittee of HCEA’s Annual Meeting Committee, to formalize community outreach activities for the organization. This year in Cleveland, the Garden Valley Neighborhood House received a donation of more than $7,700 from community outreach activities.
HCEA’s Corporate Responsibility Committee partnered with the Cleveland Convention & Visitors Bureau to identify the Garden Valley Neighborhood House (GVNH) as this year’s community project. Through community outreach events, GVNH was given more than $7,700 in donations.
According to Jan Ridgeway, executive director, GVNH, the residents are some of the most racially, economically and socially segregated in the city.
“Garden Valley Neighborhood House provides hope through training, education and critical life support such as clothing and other social service,” said Ridgeway. “We greatly appreciate the generosity of the HCEA. These funds will be most useful in continuing our work with the residents of Garden Valley who are most deserving of this assistance.”
On June 21, 41 HCEA volunteers helped to beautify hallways, enter critical food pantry data, install fencing, provide landscape support, developed a charity logo, designed and installed an external sign and more to support this Cleveland area center. In total, HCEA volunteers contributed 200 hours of service.
“We chose the Garden Valley Neighborhood as our community project because of their commitment to truly meeting the needs of their residents to improve their lives for years to come,” said Mike Bradley, chair, HCEA Corporate Responsibility Committee; general manager, Derse.
During the HCEA 2014 Chip for Charity Golf Tournament, 21 meeting attendees participated, with all proceeds donated from mulligans and contests benefitting GVNH.
A special exhibit hall traffic building activity supporting the GVNH was incorporated June 22 and June 23. Attendees were encouraged to visit as many booths as possible in the exhibit hall to learn about the array of products and services offered by exhibitors. For each dot an exhibitor collected from an attendee at their booth, a $10 donation was made to GVNH.
Private contributions were also received from various individuals and the Metro Church congregation in Massachusetts.
