Related Posts

• Community PARtners: Creating Connections and Changing Lives

  2013 has been a very busy year so far for PAR’s volunteer team! PAR staff members and their families kicked off a chilly January with a children’s clothing drive for the Redland’s Christian Migrant Association, a group that serves migrant farm workers and their families here in Florida. In February, PAR staff members helped organize the annual “Stars and Pars” golf tournament and auction to benefit The Children’s Home in Tampa. The Children’s Home provides a spectrum of social services for families in crisis including foster care, adoption, emergency shelters, child abuse prevention, and more. What’s a corn-hole toss? Here at PAR, it’s an excuse to come together, test our pitching arms, laugh a lot—and raise funds to support Suncoast Hospice. A not-for-profit organization that serves local families, Suncoast Hospice helps those living with chronic and terminal illnesses, nearing the end of life, or experiencing grief. This year’s “toss,” held in February, helped raise funds—and awareness—for this vital community resource. In March, several members of the PAR team gathered for a special breakfast in support of the PACE Center for at-risk girls. At ...

• Community PARtners: A Success Story

  Imagine seeing someone’s life turn around before your eyes. A woman who has struggled, financially and emotionally, is preparing for a long-awaited job interview. She has come quietly into a shop and is browsing through a selection of professional clothing. For the first time in her life, she tries on a business suit and emerges tentatively from the dressing room. Looking in the mirror, her face suddenly changes. She has a new look of confidence because she can see it now: She can imagine herself in a professional environment. She is ready to take her life in a new direction. This woman is what Dress for Success is all about—and she is the reason that PAR is delighted to support the DFS Tampa Chapter. Founded in 1997, Dress for Success is a not-for-profit organization offering services designed to help clients find and retain good jobs. At the Tampa chapter, Dr. Heather Ureksoy, a member of PAR’s Research and Development team, has been an active volunteer, serving not only as a volunteer coordinator and shop manager but also organizing an apparel ...

• Giving Back to our Community PARtners

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community. Throughout the year, our staff members volunteer their time to benefit many charitable organizations in the Tampa Bay area. Here’s a look at some of the activities and events PAR staff have participated in recently.   PAR staff partnered with Feeding Tampa Bay to support their Mega-Pantry program in both April and July. The Mega-Pantry distributes fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, dry goods, and more in a drive-through-style event to those in our community who are experiencing food insecurity. This program is held several times per week in various locations around Tampa. PAR staff members spend an afternoon sorting food, directing traffic, and loading hundreds of cars with enough food to feed each family for a week.  PAR staff continued our yearly tradition of participating in United Way’s Week of Caring. PAR volunteers donated their entire day to helping a local family’s housing dreams come true as they helped Habitat for Humanity to build a home in one of its new neighborhoods in the Tampa area.  Throughout the spring, volunteers from ...

• Community PARtners Spring Update

  The movers and shakers on Team PAR have been very busy, participating in community service projects and supporting causes that are making a real difference! Here are a few highlights of our activities so far this year. The PARty Animals emerged as leader of the pack in raising funds for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay at the annual Bark in the Park event this spring, keeping the trophy in its rightful place—the lobby here at PAR headquarters—for another year! A large contingent from our staff, along with their four-legged friends, joined the happy throng at Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park to support the Humane Society and its vital work in our community. “Love is Blue,” according to the old song, and that sums up one of Team PAR’s true labors of love: our support for autism awareness and research. But why blue? On World Autism Day each year, the Autism Speaks organization encourages people all over the world to “light it up blue” by wearing blue clothing and displaying blue lights in their homes, schools, and businesses. PAR staff turned out in ...

• Catching up with our Community PARtners

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community. We participate in many special events during the year that benefit organizations in the Tampa Bay area. Here’s a look at some of the activities and events PAR staff have participated in recently.  In November, PAR staff supported the American Heart Association (AHA) with a neighborhood walk to raise funds to help people fight heart disease and stroke. Learn more about the work the AHA is doing to save lives. In honor of Thanksgiving, PAR staff collected donations and delivered 70 Boxes of Hope to Metropolitan Ministries to support their annual holiday food drive. This was the largest donation that PAR has ever gathered for this event and one of the largest single donations the organization has ever received—approximately 2,500 pounds of food! Metropolitan Ministries provides the boxes to families in need so they can enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.  In December, we collected donations for our annual Angel Tree program. Each year, our generous staff work with many agencies throughout Tampa to make the holidays brighter for those in our ...

• Community PARtners in 2022

  

  One of PAR’s core values is to give back to the community—and we’ve started 2022 off with plenty of activities that help the causes we support in our area. Here are some highlights:  January: Several PAR staff members joined forces with Feeding Tampa Bay to support their Mega-Pantry program. Held several times per week in various locations around Tampa, the Mega-Pantry distributes fresh fruits and vegetables, bread, dry goods, and more in a drive-through-style event to those in our community who are experiencing food insecurity. The beautiful weather provided an ideal backdrop as PAR staff members sorted food and loaded hundreds of cars with enough food to feed each family for a week.  Feeding Tampa Bay is dedicated to eradicating hunger in the Tampa Bay region by 2025. For more information, visit Feeding Tampa Bay.  February: The PARty Animals took home first place at this year’s Bark in the Park, an annual fundraiser for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay (HSTB). One of PAR’s most popular staff events, it combines our mission of giving back with our love of animals. Between holding ...