This corporate socially responsible team building activity goes back more than a few years to 1976 when Cheeriodicals CEO, Gary Parisher and JRS Pharma CEO, Ken Seufert played on the same little league baseball team in Grifton, NC. Little did Gary and Ken know that the friendship that began on this small town (2,000 population) baseball field would lead to hundreds of reasons to smile for pediatric patients in two hospital systems.
After staying connected on social media over the years, Ken reached out to Gary to see if his company, JRS Pharma, could support an opportunity to pack Cheeriodicals, cheer-up gifts for hospitalized kids in Iowa City, IA. JRS Pharma has a large manufacturing facility in nearby Cedar Rapids and Ken wanted to gather his team together to give back for a cause that mattered to their team. Ken thought what better cause than utilizing his team in Cedar Rapids to pack Cheeriodicals and deliver to kids at Iowa Children’s Hospital nearby.
This first Cheeriodicals delivery event for Iowa Children’s Hospital was important on several fronts. First, this delivery was planned for November 18, 2021, more than one and half years since the start of the COVID pandemic. Due to pandemic-related constraints, many of the usual activities that provided benefits to the pediatric patients at Iowa Children’s Hospital had fallen on hardship. A large majority of the usual giving-based focus had shifted to reach adult populations as the pandemic’s negative impact was more skewed to affect this non-pediatric audience. As a direct result, donations to benefit hospitalized children were significantly diminished.
Secondly, the manufacturing team at JRS Pharma in Cedar Rapids had been working around the clock during the pandemic to meet the increased demand for their excipient products. Many of the medications that were used to treat COVID-related pain issues included JRS Pharma excipients, so their workload was greater than ever. Their employees in Cedar Rapids had worked many long hours over the last year and a half. A team building activity that allowed them to take an hour from work, pack gift boxes for kids, and give-back to those in need was a dose of good medicine for their entire team.
After the team building activity was completed, the 120 Cheeriodicals were packed, several photos were taken to memorialize the moment, and this manufacturing team went right back to work. It was such an interesting event for the Cheeriodicals team to lead because many team building activities take place as a portion of a larger 2-3 day meeting. In this case, instead of moving on to another event on the event schedule, this group of 75+ employees went right back to their shift to keep the production line moving ahead.
A few members of the JRS Pharma team, non manufacturing related positions, followed the Cheeriodicals team and the Two Men and a Truck delivery team to transport the 120 Cheeriodicals to Iowa Children’s Hospital. Upon arrival at the hospital front entrance, the child life team was ready and set to receive the donation and capture a few photos. Shortly after, the big green boxes of cheer were on their way to the inpatient children in the hospital.
Every child in the hospital received their own Cheeriodical. A few of the parents even sent photos of their children enjoying their cheer-up box and shared their comments about the impact this surprise gift box provided their child and even themselves.
The JRS Pharma Cheeriodicals delivery to Iowa Children’s Hospital was simply amazing. It was full of impact for the team doing the work, but even more impactful to the hospitalized kids. This day of giving-back was as good as it gets!
Ken and his management team received so much positive feedback from the Cedar Rapids office that they reached out to Cheeriodicals about hosting another event for their team at the Patterson, NY corporate office, just across the Connecticut stateline. Some of the colleagues at the corporate office were involved with the 2021 Cedar Rapids event and told the story of impact, shared photos on social media, and ultimately created a lot of momentum to host a similar event at JRS Pharma corporate.
After a planning discussion to consider the options for which children’s hospital to impact, Ken and his team noted that they wanted to make an impact in a hospital close to their corporate office. Danbury, Connecticut was the closest market with a hospital, so the focus was to make a delivery to Connecticut Children’s Hospital. This included their pediatric floor at Danbury Hospital and their specialty care clinic in Danbury.
The JRS Pharma management team set a date on August 4, 2022 to bring their corporate office team together to pack 120 Cheeriodicals and added a JRS Pharma trivia game to the mix. The home office team had an awesome time working together on this project and they captured a few photos along the way to showcase the smiles.
Following the completion of all the Cheeriodicals gift boxes, the Two Men and a Truck delivery team loaded up the boxes of cheer and delivered them to the Connecticut Children’s Hospital outpatient specialty center. The nursing staff at this facility distributed the Cheeriodicals to the kids as they came in for their appointments. And yes, along the way, a few smiles were captured, this one was one of our favorites.
Special thanks go to the entire team of JRS Pharma colleagues, both in Cedar Rapids, IA and the home office in Patterson, NY for coming together to give back with their time, effort, and energy to create these cheer-up boxes for local kids struggling with healthcare issues. These two team building activities connected these teams together in a very personal way and lifted spirits for two separate local pediatric healthcare systems looking for a reason to smile.
