Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
TruMark employees get together to aid others
TruMark Financial employees engage in charitable team building
In between discussions of tiered interest rates on money markets and home equity lines of credit, more than 300 TruMark Financial Credit Union employees managed to engage in a little philanthropy while they enjoyed more camaraderie than might typically be found at an annual meeting.
“Normally we have a guest speaker at our annual meeting and then there are breakout sessions, but this time we replaced the guest speaker with a team building exercise. It was definitely new for us,” noted Mike Patterson, TruMark Financial assistant vice president of em-
ployee development.
When they gathered at the Radisson Hotel at the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia earlier this month, employees were presented with some mysterious packages that would provide everything they needed for an intriguing adventure in social consciousness.
“Each employee received a sealed white box that said ‘do not open’ and was unaware of the contents,” Patterson explained. “There were only a handful of people who knew about it, so everybody thought it was going to be a guest speaker giving a motivational talk, but instead they were given these boxes.”
When given the “ready, set, go” signal to open the boxes, attendees discovered a collection of plastic pieces that would ultimately be assembled into 68 prosthetic hands for Third World amputees who might otherwise not be able to afford the life-altering devices.
It was at that point that everyone learned that their employer had partnered with California-based Odyssey Teams Inc., which develops philanthropic teambuilding programs for large corporations. The Helping Hand Project was designed to provide employees with a meaningful “give back activity” that would both inspire them and leave them with a sense of accomplishment, Patterson noted.
“Then we told everybody exactly what they would be doing and put them in groups of 10, with two groups at each table,” Patterson said. “People were assigned with other colleagues that they normally don’t work with on a dayto-day basis.”
As they dove into the task at hand, TruMark employees joined the ranks of such companies as eBay, Wells Fargo and Pfizer, which have participated in Odyssey training sessions and contributed to the more than 1,000 prosthetic hands that have been donated since 1991.
Although the finished products would be inspected for quality control down the road, employees were happy to give them a test drive, Patterson said.
“The hand comes with a strap so that it can be strapped onto the arm, and some people used them to write with,” he noted. “It’s really closer to a claw than a hand, but it’s created in such a way so that the recipients learn how to use it very quickly. A couple of the fingers are stationary and a couple of fingers can move to grip something.”
By the end of the day it was clear that The Helping Hand Project was a roaring success with all concerned.
“The feedback was tremendous,” Patterson said. “Everyone really took it seriously, knowing they were making a product that, when it was all said and done, would be going to someone who really needed it. Not only are you bringing the team together for a great team building activity, but there’s the giving back aspect, with 68 prosthetic hands that will go to people who need them. It was a great experience.”
Founded in 1939, TruMark Financial Credit Union is based in Fort Washington, with 22 branches in Southeastern Pennsylvania, including West Chester, Trooper, Conshohocken, Flourtown and North Wales.