KSM Lends a Helping Hand to Seven Organizations to Mark 10th Community Day

KSM invests in our communities because we believe it is the right thing to do. While we give back in a variety of ways, both as a firm and as individuals, KSM’s annual Community Day is an opportunity for our team to make a meaningful impact over the course of one work day.

2019 marked KSM’s 10th Community Day. Throughout the years, we’ve volunteered for a number of worthy organizations, programs, and causes including Habitat for Humanity, Jameson Camp, Gleaners Food Bank, and the Indianapolis Super Bowl Near Eastside Legacy Project. Last year, we coordinated with our satellite offices—Fort Wayne, New York City, and Oklahoma City—to hold our first firm-wide Community Day, in which these employees also volunteered for projects to assist their own communities.

This year, KSM employees across our four locations focused their efforts on aiding the poor, fighting hunger, and providing much-needed manual labor to organizations that serve children and families:

• In Indianapolis, nearly 185 KSM volunteers packed 70,000 meals for Million Meal Movement, which provides millions of meals to hungry Hoosiers every year. These healthy, nutritious meals are designed to satisfy hunger while providing essential nutrients. The meals we packed were distributed to food banks in the Bloomington, IN area.
• KSM’s New York City employees volunteered at Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen, the largest emergency food program in the city. Our team of 11 served 716 hot meals (including 267 pounds of chicken and sausage gumbo!) and packed 220 bagged lunches for hungry and homeless New Yorkers.
• At Martin Park Nature Center in Oklahoma City, our crew of six volunteers cleared everything from small seedlings to grown trees to reduce the risk of wild fire. They also picked up trash from the children’s park, pavilion area, and parking lot. In the afternoon, they worked at the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, where they sorted 4,166 pounds of bread into meal boxes and assembled 1,506 bags of nutritious food for the Food for Kids Backpack Program.
• Our 20 Fort Wayne employees spent the morning spreading holiday cheer at Erin’s House for Grieving Children by setting up four Christmas trees and prepping materials for holiday crafting. In the afternoon, they split into two groups to sort donations of housewares and bedding at Mustard Seed Furniture Bank and pack food at Associated Churches of Fort Wayne and Allen County.

“Serving others, including those in our communities, is an important part of KSM’s culture, and our KSM team looks forward to Community Day every year. This year, we were thrilled to help so many giving community organizations and the people they support,” said David Resnick, KSM’s managing partner. “As we look to beginning our second decade of Community Days in 2020, we feel fortunate to be able to give back as a firm in this way.”

Ellen Roemke, volunteer director for Erin’s House for Grieving Children, expressed her gratitude for the help our Fort Wayne employees provided during what is a difficult time for the families Erin’s House supports.

“Our families struggle to get through the holidays without their loved one. The pain of cherished memories can be a constant reminder of what they don’t have this holiday season,” Roemke said. “This year KSM went over the top by turning Erin’s House into a joy-filled Christmas wonderland. We are so grateful for their generosity, enthusiasm, and willingness to make this year one to remember!”

Indianapolis: Million Meal Movement
New York: Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen
Oklahoma City: Martin Park Nature Center & Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma
Fort Wayne: Erin’s House, Mustard Seed Furniture Bank, & Associated Churches