Giving Focus: A New Life for Photo Shoot Playsets

Community/Giving  |  2 years ago

Giving is an important part of CedarWorks and its culture. We have a stated commitment to creating a healthier world for children. We always strive for that with our products, of course, which are designed to encourage the kind of active, independent play that is good for childhood development. But we want our efforts to go beyond sales. That is why we give 10% of our profits to organizations and events in Maine that benefit kids and the environment.

Much of our giving takes the form of sponsorships of local events or in-kind donations to a fundraiser, like an auction or raffle. On occasion, we will donate a playset to a local organization. This year, however, has been especially fun, because, on top of all our usual giving, we decided to donate most of the leftover playsets from our summer photo shoot once it was finished.

Whenever we do an outdoor playset photo shoot, we swap out the old playsets and playhouses from our display area, with new playsets from the photo shoot. This year was such a big shoot with so many different playsets, we had far more than we needed to fill our display area, so we decided to donate the leftover play equipment to several different organizations in Maine.

One playset went to Volunteers of America Northern New England’s Cabin in the Woods program which provides permanent housing for veterans and their families. These families will have a safe place to live with features that enhance a sense of community, including a play area for children.

A second playset went to Homeless Services of Aroostook County which provides the only emergency shelter for the general public in Aroostook, the largest county in Maine (our northernmost county, it has a geographic area approximately the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined). Now, at a stressful time in a family’s life, kids who are staying at the shelter have a playground where they can go outside and just be kids for a while.

With one playhouse left to donate, we reached out to the Knox County Homeless Coalition, right down the road from us, to see if they could use it. It turns out, their old CedarWorks playset, one we had donated many years ago, is getting worn out, so the timing was perfect, and we will soon deliver them their new playhouse and swing set.

We love selling playsets at CedarWorks, but giving them away can be even more fun.

To learn more about these organizations and the work they do:

Cabin in the Woods https://www.voanne.org/citw

Homeless Services of Aroostook County  https://www.aroostookhomeless.org/

Knox County Homeless Coalition https://www.homehelphope.org/