Misumi Cares for Kids in Miamisburg, OH

 

Manufacturers provide the parts for bigger projects, and so it seems quite fitting that the folks from Misumi turned a team building event into a Mission: Kids Care™ event, providing backpacks full of supplies to schoolchildren in need.

MisumiStrength in Numbers

We met the Misumi team at the Hilton Garden Inn Dayton South-Austin Landing. The company wanted its employees to develop teamwork, conflict resolution, and interpersonal skills. Our Mission: Kids Care™ activity is a perfect fit; teams work together in pursuit of a shared goal, which is preparing backpacks for school kids in need.

Roughly 60 attendees were expected, and about 75 showed up. Everyone was really excited, and though we had to change things up a bit to accommodate 15 extra people, the space was cozy and comfortable. To make it easier to break the group into teams in a tight space, our facilitator handed out glow sticks as folks came into the room, and then we asked people to activate their glowsticks and find the folks who shared the same color wand.

Competition for a Good Cause

A quick ice breaker of Air Counting gave folks a chance to mix it up a bit and introduce themselves to colleagues they didn’t know, and then we moved on to the Mission: Kids Care™ activity. Teams clearly enjoyed completing activities like Dice Banking, Cup Stack, and Flip the Cup, earning school supplies for their backpacks. Friendly competition got intense from time to time, but it was all for a good cause. When we’d run through all of the activities, the Misumi teams experienced a bit of a surprise.

Mission: KidsCare Helps Local Families in Miamisburg, OH

In the end, none of the teams had earned all of the types of supplies we had available. It prompted some powerful conversations about the families of these kids. These families might be struggling with those same kinds of choices about what they can provide for their kids, and what gets skipped.

The donations prepared by the Misumi teams benefited 30 families served by the Valley Interfaith Community Resource Center. Alicia Stollenwerk accepted the backpacks on behalf of local Miamisburg families. Misumi employees were clearly moved when it was time to present the backpacks prepared through the Mission: Kids Care™ activity. They’d worked together and worked hard; they were gratified to know that local children would benefit from the lessons they learned about teamwork, conflict resolution, and building interpersonal relationships.