Volunteer leads annual corporate fundraiser

Lighthouse Point resident Shani Oulton is no stranger to fundraising.

As a mother of two children, ages 9 and 12, she has sold cookie dough, sponsored classrooms and solicited gift certificates for raffles. As director of data services for the National Council on Compensation Insurance, which promotes workers’ compensation, she has contributed to the annual campaign for United Way of Palm Beach County.

But when she volunteered this year to head up an annual campaign for NCCI Holdings in Boca Raton, it was her first stint as the main chair of a major fundraising campaign.

From Sept. 5 to 22 — minus four days due to Hurricane Irma — Oulton and NCCI raised $235,000 from pledge cards and events. That is $7,000 more than the company raised last year for United Way, a community-oriented nonprofit. Four weeks after the final event, Oulton is crediting almost everyone but herself.

“I have a company of 900 people,” she said.

Those 900 bought raffle tickets for the chance to win prizes such as airline tickets and hotel stays, a golf outing and Florida Atlantic University football tickets.

They donated canned goods like tuna, chicken, fruits, vegetables, and macaroni and cheese.

One committee in the fundraising group invited an organization dedicated to packing food for food-distressed areas, weighing out grains and soy to create meal kits. They packed 6,000 meals in one hour to be donated to CROS Ministries’ six food pantries in Palm Beach County.

But it was the grand finale that was the most fun, Oulton said. In light of the campaign’s focus on alleviating hunger, employees were challenged to build something creative out of donated canned goods.

The “Can-Struction Event” split NCCI employees into ten registered teams, each given 30 cans for inspiration and told they could raise additional money from colleagues. They were given two weeks to design — something — and one hour to build it in a competition. The winner: CanABLES from NCCI’s Assigned Risk Department with a fishing-inspired sculpture.

The real winners, however, were the residents of Palm Beach County. Some 15.1 percent of people in the county are food-insecure, the highest rate in South Florida, according to the Feeding South Florida food bank.