Every year for the last 16 years Viacom has sponsored Viacom Community Day. Employees can volunteer to do some community service. The company makes T-Shirts, they offer breakfast, snacks and a wrap party. But really the fun part is the community service. I have worked there since 2006 and this was the first year I was able to participate because usually we are in the middle of blockbuster season meaning we are too busy to break for this event. This year I through caution to the wind and told my new boss I was participating. Luckily he didn't disagree so, yesterday, I was able to participate for the very first time and I am so glad I did. I had so much fun and not to mention the experience felt really good. Maybe I should do more community service, more often? hum?
Anyhoo, Viacom Community day not only happens at the Hollywood Studio but at our offices around the world. Since everyone was participating it was a little easier to leave my work behind for a few hours. I signed up for the on lot program. I knew I would be doing arts and crafts but really had no idea what exactly I would be doing. After a group of 50 us walked into a sound stage we saw about 25 tables or rather stations with various projects. The team leader walked us through and explained what each station was about. When we got to the last station, I knew I found my place for the morning. The last station was letter writing to solders overseas. Well, I just love to write so I volunteered for that site. 6 other people followed me and we all sat down to write. A lot of people didn't know how to start so I suggested we start by saying GREETINGS FROM HOLLYWOOD or GREETINGS FROM PARAMOUNT PICTURES. That seemed to get the ball rolling and we all had fun writing. My co-workers were teasing me because I appeared to write books. That's normal for me I told them. I sat at that station for about an hour and a half before moving on to make Mother's Day Photo Frames for kids to give to their mom's. My final station was working for Angel Food Project a homeless center that passes out food. They needed some Happy Birthday bags decorated so for 45 minutes I designed bags.
Overall I worked from 9-noon and I have to say it was the most relaxing 3 hours of my entire work week!!! I wish I could do that every week! IN the afternoon at 3pm the company had a wrap party and had all kinds of snacks and food for everyone who helped out. The one thing I discovered for the future is that you can never be too busy to help out the community. I don't care how busy I am next year, I am taking time to help out the community!! It does the soul good!
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