In the Community
January 16, 2009
Some 5,000 Kaiser Permanente Physicians and Employees Volunteered on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
(Updated Jan. 20)
When President-elect Barack Obama renewed the call for a National Day of Service to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, Kaiser Permanente was already in action. Kaiser Permanente employees and their families have participated in volunteer service projects nationwide on Martin Luther King Day for the last five years, and will again this year.
On Monday, 5,000 Kaiser Permanente employees and physicians, and their families, worked in community service projects nationwide. Projects included building houses for low-income families in California, spreading warmth among the homeless in Washington, D.C., providing health education and screenings to the underserved in Colorado, and beautifying a Boys & Girls Club facility in Georgia, among other efforts.
Angeline Neal, a business analyst in Kaiser Permanente's Mid-Atlantic States region, is among the Kaiser Permanente employees volunteering to help package and deliver coats to homeless shelters in the region. This service has special significance to Neal because of a personal experience she had while serving as the co-chair of the North Capitol Medical Center (Washington, D.C.) community service team.
"I was delivering clothing and school supplies that we had collected for our partner school, when my meeting with a counselor there was interrupted by one of the students," Neal said. "She was sent by her teacher because she was wearing only a dress and a pair of shoes…without undergarments or a coat. The experience made me realize how important our work is, not just on this National Day of Service, but throughout the year."
Kaiser Permanente employees, physicians, and executives volunteered at service sites in communities throughout the nine states, and the District of Columbia, that Kaiser Permanente serves. Among the projects are:
- Senior executives and employees from Kaiser Permanente's operations in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., participated in the "Spread the Warmth" campaign. They sorted and packed coats at Kaiser Permanente’s facility in Beltsville, Md., and delivered coats to local homeless shelters serving men, women, and children.
- In Northern California, employees and physicians worked with two well-respected community organizations – Rebuilding Together and Habitat for Humanity. Both organizations rehabilitate and build homes for low-income members in the community. Rebuilding Together also works on projects to rehabilitate non-profit facilities that serve low-income communities.
- Employees and physicians in Orange (Calif.) County held a drive for gently used/new clothing, grocery store gift cards and other needed items to be given to the homeless through the Illumination Foundation, a local nonprofit organization.
- Physicians and employees based in West Los Angeles will conduct a week-long Thrive Food Drive benefiting the Westside Food Bank. Westside collects and distributes food through more than 65 social service agencies in Southern California, sustaining 80,000 of the most vulnerable neighbors – approximately half of them children.
- A group of Kaiser Permanente volunteers in Colorado helped provide meals in central Denver to the homeless and underserved. Additionally, volunteers helped to administer flu shots as well as provided hygiene kits at the dinner. Kaiser Permanente Colorado also provided sponsorship of the event, which will help Volunteers of America with the financial means to acquire the food for the dinner.
- In San Diego, physicians and employees spent the day at the San Diego Food Bank, cleaning, sorting, bagging, and boxing food items for distribution to those in need.
- In Ohio, employees and physicians painted and cleaned a daycare center, packed education kits for children with special needs, and cleaned rooms in a facility that serves adults and children with developmental delays.
For more about Kaiser Permanente's efforts in the community year-round, visit the organization's Community Benefit Web site.
