Holiday Giving
Here at WP Engine, we are committed to giving back to our community.
While we aim to support and engage with our local community throughout the year, we think it’s especially important to give back during the holiday season.
So this year we decided to sponsor 2 families for the holidays, through Austin-based domestic violence shelter Safe Place.
Safe Place
Safe Place provides services aimed at ensuring safety, healing, prevention, and change for individuals and families affected by sexual and domestic violence.
As Safe Place explains on their website:
The holidays are an especially difficult time for victims of domestic and sexual violence. Starting their lives over can lead to great financial hardship and many families find themselves on the brink of homelessness with scarcely any resources at their disposal.
Safe Place has an initiative called the Sponsor a Family Holiday Program, which matches sponsors with a holiday wish list from families living in Safe Place’s transitional housing.
Holiday Wish List
The wish lists of the 2 families we are sponsoring have been written on the angels decorating our office Christmas tree. Many of the items are basic essentials—like clothing, shoes, and bedding.
One of the children we sponsored had a simple request. She asked for a pair of Nike sneakers.
2 other children asked for a Nexus 7 tablet. As a technology startup, we understand that access to technology is an essential part of education for school age children. We really wanted to make this particular wish come true.
WP Engine Team
The team at WP Engine rallied behind the Safe Place holiday giving drive—with individuals donating to buy items of clothing, pairs of shoes and, of course, the Nexus 7 tablet.
We’re proud to say that we’ve been able to purchase every single item on the families’ wish lists.
There was even a little bit left over, which we’ve used to buy some extra essentials for the families.
Our Values
A little while ago, we sat down together to decide on our company values. And one of our chosen values—one that everybody agreed on—was that here at WP Engine we want to give back to our community.
One of our WP Engine Culture Club members had a really nice way of putting it:
This is a way of us giving back, and taking a step back to recognize that we are all blessed here.
We all have an amazing job, we work with amazing people. We are able to feed our families. And everyone here goes home at night and has a place to sleep.
Let’s be thankful for that. And let’s give something to those less fortunate that might not have what we have.
Want to Contribute?
We are happy to report that Safe Place has been able to match all of their 2013 Sponsor a Family clients with sponsors.
But you can still help out by supporting their Shop for the Shelter Holiday Program, which fills the needs of their shelter clients and families who were not able to participate in the Sponsor a Family program.
Alternatively, you can make a general donation to Safe Place.
What do you value most during the holiday season?
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