My name is Ted Pallad and I’m a Manager for a Sales Organization here in Los Angeles.   I consider myself very lucky….  I have a great staff, wonderful wife, beautiful home, and three healthy children.   This is exactly WHY I wanted to volunteer and “give-back” to others.   The first time I fed the homeless… it was such a great feeling.  Seeing the less fortunate, and hearing them thank me for what?  Passing them a tray of less than desirable food?   They would say “god bless you” and were so sincere about it.   You know, it was also this experience when I saw a white male, looked like me and was approximately my age.  It reminded me, once again, how lucky I was..  and that the homeless, less fortunate people here in Los Angeles are of all ages, races and nationalities.

So from this one experience, I have now organized different volunteering opportunities around Los Angeles for my entire staff-  (Food Bank, Painted a school, planted plants…etc)  

From this past year of volunteering with my staff.. and seeing how GREAT they felt as well, I tried it throughout every office around the United States.  Our company has 18 offices: Atlanta Boston Chicago Dallas Detroit Kansas City Los Angeles Minneapolis New York Philadelphia Pittsburgh Portland Raleigh, NC Richmond, VA San Francisco Seattle
St. Louis and Washington DC.

This was an opportunity to give back to our community in every city! So here was my idea…right in the Heart of May (5/14), a group of employees, all across the United States, had the opportunity to help feed the homeless, read to underprivileged kids, plant tress at a local elementary school or assist at park or community clean-ups!  I googled the word “volunteer” in these cities and found organizations that could use a few hours of volunteer work.   You see, I realized that a lot of people wanted to volunteer, but didn’t know how or were too lazy.  So I did all the leg work….  And it worked!

So now I feel I shared the feeling of “giving back”.  That feeling I got from the first night of feeding the homeless.  Shared it with my staff… and then shared it across the US with a bunch of employees!   Had to share this….  Feels good.