Florida
Recently, LevelUp talked with Kristi Kirby, VP of Vendor Management for TD SYNNEX. Kristi is leading the charge on our newest chapter of Share the Magic: Clearwater, Florida. Learn more about the cause and how we can all make a difference.
Chouinard, Aimee: Now we have a whole new chapter of Share the Magic. What’s the latest and greatest, Kristi?
Kirby, Kristi: I’m super excited about Share the Magic and I have a lot to share with you. Peter (Larocque) started Share the Magic. I think it was in 2011. To date, it’s raised almost $18 million for children’s causes. We always adopted a local charity in the host city at every single Tech Select event for as long as I can remember, and I’ve been with the company for over 15 years. Peter asked me if I knew about Share the Magic and I said, yes, I’d love to get involved, and then not too long after he said, well, why don’t you lead it for Florida. I’ve always loved and respected what Share the Magic does. Of course, I said yes.
Aimee: What does Share the Magic do?
Kristi: It’s all about charitable giving, it’s employee driven and it’s specific to the communities in which we live and work. The original chapter was in South Carolina, out of Greenville, then there was a chapter opened in California and the Bay Area in Illinois, Toronto, Arizona and Texas as well as Colorado and then Florida is #8… so super exciting!
Aimee: How are you launching the newest chapter?
Kristi: You saw it at CommunitySolv. That was what I would call our very, very soft launch.
It was great for us to be able to launch share the Magic Florida there, with the communities, because we happened to pick Children’s Dream Fund, which is based out of Saint Pete, as our charity of choice, which is only an hour if you will from our host city of Orlando. And, why it was even more meaningful is because we were near the Disney World property and the number one dream that Children’s Dream Fund gives away is “Give Kids the World,” which is a week-long trip to Disney that’s specially formulated with all the care, all the staff, all the medical equipment that those really, ill children need right on site. So that when the parents and the families go away, they don’t have to feel like they’re leaving their whole care team behind, all of that is automatically available for them in-home or in Give Kids the World Village.
Aimee: And they get to be with other kids who are going through similar circumstances, they get to play, and their families get to have a little enjoyment as well, right?
Kristi: Many of the families will tell you that since diagnosis to that time, it’s about the most normal they feel in a very long time.
Aimee: Wonderful. And so now what’s next as far as fundraising, events or anything that people can get involved in?
Kristi: So, we have some things that are in the works for events. You know, most of the cities do some sort of a local event in market and then there’s a really large gala that the company hosts out of Greenville every year in the fall time frame. From an in-market perspective, most of the events are golf, which is awesome as obviously there’s a lot of golfers out there. But we took a little bit of a different spin because we’re in Florida, we’re in the Tampa Bay area and we’re surrounded by gorgeous water. So, what we’re going to do is a fishing tournament.
Aimee: Love it.
Kristi: Yes, that’s exciting. But I also recognize that not all people fish. So, the night before we’re having a really fun casino night. And we’re targeting the May and June time frame. We’ll have some events and lead up to that and some fundraising activities. And, we had the employees pick which charities that they wanted to donate to as the recipients of Share the Magic in Florida. We also had 64 people volunteer to give their time and be part of the committees as well, which was amazing and overwhelming. I was never expecting that many people, so that was great.
Aimee: Can we make it 65? I’m in.
Kristi: Sure. Yes, I love it. I love it. I appreciate it. Welcome all the help. I need to build the committee structure, build the board, build all that. Getting through the holidays and all that was step one, and you know from CommunitySolv it was straight into holiday season. So really the month of January I get to spend a lot of time on that.
Aimee: So, what else do you want people to know?
Kristi: I think this is extremely important because as the workforce remains somewhat remote, I think it’s good for people to still feel connected to their local communities and to understand the power that we can be when we come together as one. I mean look at CommunitySolv and the fact that within maybe 30 hours we raised $32,000. If that’s not impressive to people you know and can show the impact that a group of people can have by coming together, I don’t really know what is, right? It blew me away. I mean, I was getting a series of text messages from the Dream Fund with the numbers, and they just kept going. And I was like, “This is not real. I cannot actually believe this is happening right now!”
I would say get excited, speak up, share your ideas and really be on the lookout to save the date.
And one last thing too, just to let people know, is that this is not where we ask for volunteer donations or time from just people within our industry. Of course, our vendors and our customers are extremely generous, but really everybody can get involved. These are charities that directly impact the local communities in which we live and work in. So, this is also a chance for other local businesses to get involved. And I think that that’s really exciting as well.
Aimee: So, grab your family. Your friends. Your colleagues. Other organizations you’re involved in.
Kristi: Exactly.
Aimee: Well, it’s really great to see you, Kristi, and to hear that things are going so well with Share the Magic. So glad you’re at the helm and looking forward to whatever comes next.
Kristi: Thanks. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time for sure.
Aimee: How can people get involved?
Kristi: They can just reach out to me via e-mail: Kristi.Kirby@tdsynnex.com.
