Most charitable organizations think of us folks at the upper end of seniority and paygrades to fill up their buckets. They shouldn’t. I’d go after the Gen x’ers and y’s. They have a lifetime of giving ahead of them. Even though it is very easy to avoid giving back to the community financially when you are in your 20′s, there is no better time to learn, and to make it a habit. Interestingly, this is the first year according to the most recent Donor Survey that says that twentysomethings are giving more than the baby boomers. Embarrassing (for us boomers) but true.

Anyhow we kicked off our company’s campaign with a pumpkin-carving contest and why not? We search for almost any reason to have an event, er, contest, and the messier the better.

We delivered about 80 carved pumpkins to a local group called Opportunity Partners, an organization that helps provide employment, housing and education services to people with special needs.

US NEWS liked the idea, too. They even ran the pictures and they never do that.

I am not sure what gave me a bigger thrill…seeing our people carve pumpkins while learning how to support local good causes, or the look on the faces of the folks at Opportunity Partners.

It was a tie.

Here are some pictures from our carving event. Enjoy….we did and most of all, they did.

Here’s how it worked:

We assigned teams, made up country flags and gave each member a headband in that country’s color. At 8 am each day the teams competed according to a seeding system established the day before by the “Commissioner” and “Rules Committee.” Every metric important to our business was always part of the system…points were awarded for sales, new customers, number of ads created, whatever. Brackets were prepared based on individual performance of the team members. Daily winners got JobDig medals, some cash and continued to advance. Mostly, they got bragging rights which they used extensively. Everyone played, not just sales.

Yelling, cheering, national music, rules violations, speech-making, team building, high five-ing, intense facial expressions and noontime practice was encouraged. Some trash talking was allowed; injuries were kept to a minimum.

Today was the final Relay event, and the winning team was competing for the top prize, $100 for each team member. It was serendipity that today’s winner could have been any one of three teams, out of 8. For a month long contest, how odd was that? (Wink, wink…those manipulative commissioners, what can I say?)

This may have been the best contest ever. Every goal we set was surpassed for team building, activities and results. But overall, I gotta be honest: I love these kids.

(hat tip: Molly, Eric, Brad, Toby, Steve, Adam, Paul,Brenda)