The month of June was a busy one here at Pickering, as an enthusiastic “Team June” participated in the 75 Acts challenge. The team had 18 participants, hailing from the facilities group in our Memphis office and our transportation team in the Jonesboro office, and they certainly took this month to rise to the occasion.

Though it was the hottest month of the year yet, members from Team June took many of their acts of service outside. The engineers and architects in the Memphis office spent one their Saturdays tidying up the gardens at Villa Vianney, an independent living residence for senior priests. They also took time to help out at Epiphany Lutheran Church Garden, which provides over 1,400 pounds of food for the hungry and impoverished in the Collierville community.

Jonesboro team members also braved the heat and sun to participate in a Jonesboro Community Cleanup event, picking up trash and helping to beautify their city.

The team orchestrated a group to participate in the Love Well 5k Run benefitting the Serenity Recovery Center. This race aimed to shine a spotlight on addiction issues and the opioid crisis. There was a great turnout, and one of our members even placed in her age group!

Memphis members of Team June volunteered a lunch hour serving food at Memphis Union Mission. This was extra special because many of our Pickering volunteers were integral to helping design the Mission’s new facility, which is nearly done with construction.

The team organized many incredible acts of service, but perhaps most notable was coordinating a blood drive for the entire office building at Memphis. Our Memphis headquarters office takes up the 3^rd floor of a 4-story building with multiple tenants; Team June set up a mobile blood drive vehicle to come to our building’s parking lot for the afternoon and invited everyone in the building to come donate. It ended up being a great success- Vitalant said our donations helped saved over 45 lives and that they actually had to turn away donors. Moving forward, the building management group said that they want to make this a semi -annual event.  With everyone’s help, Pickering really made an impact.

Though we could not be more proud at how every member of Team June stepped up and participated in community outreach, Team June also took time to celebrate their family, friends and each other. Treats were shared, recipes were exchanged, new policies were implemented to encourage recycling & efficiency, and finally future ideas were brainstormed and passed along. We saw first-hand how great things can be achieved when a team like this gets together in the spirit of altruism.

Team Co-Captain Tim Ogburn has this to say about the 75 Acts challenge: "Looking back on the month, I want to thank everyone for their help and their efforts. It was great to see so many people pitch in and make such a huge difference. I think we had a lot of fun. We also learned a lot about ourselves and what we can do when we work together."

2021 is Pickering's 75th year as a company. In order to celebrate, Pickering is holding an inter-office contest called 75 Acts of Service & Good Work. This contest divides the entire company into 6 teams, with each team getting 1 month to try and accomplish as many acts of Service & Good Work as possible from a pre-determined list of 75 Acts. At the end of the 6-month campaign, whichever team has the most points wins. This contest provides a wonderful opportunity to work together to promote an important aspect of our culture!