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Employees That Care
Every year, the employees of TradeLink LLC, an asset management and trading firm in Chicago, are given three days of time off to engage in volunteer work. Aspire is fortunate to be on the receiving end of the good deeds offered by that charitable and forward-thinking company.
Three years ago, TradeLink’s Chairman Walt Weissman asked office manager Lori Shatava to look into volunteer opportunities for TradeLink employees. Weissman thought it was the right thing to do. “Everyone is encouraged to give back and our employees are given the time off work to volunteer,” explains Shatava.
The first year of the volunteer program, which the company calls “TradeLink Cares,” employee volunteers sorted through donations at Aspire on Broadway, Aspire’s resale shop in Melrose Park. TradeLink’s volunteers, many of whom are traders, product development professionals and administrators, dug right into the piles of clothes and household items that needed to be processed and sorted for sale.
For the last three years, a group of employees at TradeLink have become the unofficial ambassadors of gardening and landscaping for Aspire. They have helped to beautify the exterior of four community homes, including creating a butterfly garden outside of the Litt Center, which houses Aspire life skills training and employment workshop. The employee volunteers also planted a vegetable garden at Aspire on Eastern, where the residents pick tomatoes and herbs to include in their meals!
“After we finish the gardening work, we always get a tour of the building and program where we are volunteering,” says Shatava. “It’s nice to meet the people that live and work at Aspire and it’s good that we can offer our help.”
