We Care and Give Back: Going Back to School in Haiti

While many of Intuit’s We Care and Give Back activities focus on local efforts, Partner Manager Rudy Pointdujour took a global approach to using his volunteer hours, inspiring the Plano site and coming to the rescue of an organization in need.

Rudy Pointdujour was born in Haiti, and supports Restore Haiti, a nonprofit organization that partners with local community leaders to impact the lives of children and their families through education, nutrition and healthcare.

Last summer, Pointdujour led a school supply drive for Restore Haiti’s backpack program. The ProConnect GroupCare team filled 300 backpacks.

He believed he could do even more to change lives by actually traveling to Haiti, and by getting more people involved in the cause. Pointdujour set an even bigger goal – filling 620 backpacks, more than twice the amount filled last year, which would be enough for all students in the fourth grade and up. To make that goal happen, he involved the entire site in collecting school supplies as part of the Plano Week of Service activities.

The results

“Thanks to the team, we crushed the goal and filled 650 backpacks,” said Pointdujour.

Buying school supplies and filling backpacks is just one part of the story. As the team was packing up the supplies to ship to Haiti, Pointdujour learned the organization that traditionally purchases the actual backpacks wasn’t able to do so this year. As part of the Week of Service, the Plano team raised additional funds for Restore Haiti through a dunk tank, where site leaders took the plunge for a good cause. The dunk tank raised $2,000, which, when matched by Intuit, covered the amount needed to purchase the backpacks for all students supporting by Restore Haiti … more than 1,200.

“With giving opportunities like Week of Service, we have an opportunity to spread our WCGB value across many organizations,” said Plano Site Leader and Vice President of Sales Barry Pennett. “Restore Haiti’s school supply backpack program resonated with us because it directly benefits children. To have the opportunity to directly impact children is very the best we can be.”

In August, Restore Haiti flew Pointdujour down to be part of their Celebration of Excellence in recognition of his efforts, and the efforts of the Intuit team.

“This was entirely about the children, and I was excited and humbled to be a part of it,” Pointdujour said. “We gave out the backpacks, and had the opportunity to be part of the awards ceremony. I wouldn’t have had this opportunity without Intuit’s values, and without my site and local leadership support,” he said.

Living our We Care & Give Back value year-round

All Intuit employees can use up to 32 hours of paid time off to volunteer each calendar year and request up to $5,000 in donation matching through our We Care & Give Back program.

Written by Intuit Blog team

Our team of contributors loves to uncover inspiring stories and share helpful tips to help power your prosperity.

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