’Tis the season to give back, and a group of Santander Consumer USA (SC) volunteers did that by helping spread holiday cheer.
SC associates from the project manager and originations teams volunteered at the non-profit Healing Hands International in their “M.A.G.I. Program” to give underprivileged children presents just in time for the holidays.
“We are stuffing and checking boxes that are being packed up for children ages ranging from 2-11 to send to Mexico for those that don’t have what they need,” said one SC associate participating in the company’s Volunteer Paid Time Off (VPTO) program.
The volunteers packed gift boxes the size of a shoebox with necessities like toothpaste and clothes, as well as small toys, crafts and candy for the kids to enjoy.
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The program’s acronym stands for “Making a Godly Impact,” and the Nashville, TN, based non-profit certainly does just that.
Each year, it puts together thousands of gift boxes, called M.A.G.I. boxes, for children in the Dominican Republic, Zambia, Texas-Mexico border area, Honduras and Mexico. To date, they have sent over 200,000 M.A.G.I. gift boxes.
As for the impact of the SC associates, in one full day of volunteering, they packed and quality-checked 500 gift boxes at Healing Hands’ Carrollton, TX, location.
For one SC associate, it was the second time volunteering with Healing Hands. She encouraged her whole team to volunteer.
“This organization is very near and dear to my heart just because I actually came here last year and had such a great time,” said the volunteer. “And I think it’s really important the company gives us hours to volunteer to help other organizations, especially during the holidays.”
The VPTO program represents no small commitment by the auto lender, which is based in Dallas, TX, affording employees the opportunity to take a full workday off to help those in need and also benefit personally from the experience.
It’s a win-win situation that has worked very successfully for the auto lender and the organizations that benefit from the help they receive, with SC employees volunteering more than 10,000 hours so far in 2017. The program is so successful, in fact, that SC has doubled associates’ annual VPTO allowance to two days.
To see more SC associates using their volunteer time off, follow us on our social media pages, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter as #SCGivesBack.
