Students, staff to benefit from Maps.com bike building exercise
Boys & Girls Club to benefit with a donation of bikes built by the Maps.com staff as part of the company’s team building and leadership skills activity
Maps.com will go from map making to bike building in an exercise that combines team building and altruism when they donate staff-built bikes to the local Boys and Girls Club at Goleta Beach on Aug. 27, 2013.
The bike building exercise and subsequent donation to the Boys and Girls Club is part of the Maps.com company retreat that begins on Monday, Aug. 26. The bike building activity that will take place the following day is an exercise designed to strengthen leadership and team skills among the company’s 42 employees.
“We really wanted to provide an interesting and different approach to a team building exercise, but we also wanted one that fits in with our company’s culture. Since we strive to be tied to the community, the bike building exercise fits well with who we are as a company,” said Human Resources Manager Natasha Wallace. Wallace said that the teams will be given the unassembled bikes and tasked with building them straight out of the box. Some teams will have superior tools, others may have tools that are inferior, or needed tools may be missing. The team building portion comes into play as teams are left to use their own creativity to determine how to problem solve-whether they ask another team for help or devise a different way to complete the task. “I know that seeing the smiles on their faces will make any angst they had about assembling the bikes go away,” Wallace said joking about the potential difficulties staff may face during the team building exercise.
Tyler Forshey of The Boys & Girls Club said the organization is excited about partnering with Maps.com on this event. Forshey said many of the young people affiliated with The Boys & Girls Club have a definite need for the bikes. “For some of these youth it’s really about giving them the independence to get to school or work. We’re really appreciative of Maps.com for not only their generosity with this donation but also for their interest in spending the time to meet with the recipients of the bikes and acknowledging where their donation is going,” Forshey said. The children who will receive the bikes are between the ages of 11 and 17. Many of them have jobs and will use a bike as a means of commuting.
“I chose this exercise because I think when we have all the resources required to get our jobs done we kind of plug along with our day and don’t realize how fortunate we are to have everything. When we don’t have the resources we need and we have to compete for them it feels different. Experiencing the feeling of not having the tools one needs to accomplish something important ties nicely into our donating these bikes to The Boys & Girls Club. These bikes will get the kids to school and work. They’re resources they need.” Wallace said.
Maps.com has also created a bike map to highlight trails around the Santa Barbara and Goleta area to encourage youth to use the bikes as more than just a means of transportation but also as a vehicle for exploration and to create some adventures.
The bikes will be donated to The Boys & Girls Club after the bike assembly is finished. Media is invited to contact Maps.com for an update on scheduled donations.
To learn more about Maps.com visit www.maps.com. For more information on volunteering, donating or raising awareness for The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, visit www.bgca.org.