For years, Elpis Enterprises has been the community partner printing t-shirts for Walser employees and their families for their community outings or volunteering events. Now, Walser is ready to give back to Elpis during their second annual Week of Giving from April 7 to 11 as the first participant in Elpis’ new bird feeder building volunteer program.
Dayna Kleve has worked with The Walser Foundation for over the last five years as a community outreach director. She shared her experiences with Elpis executive director Paul Ramsour, making their t-shirt orders a seamless process, and decided to take Elpis up on the new volunteer program, a no-brainer.
“Any chance we have to work with Elpis, we do when it comes to t-shirts specifically because it’s just another way we can continue the partnership,” said Kleve.
The Walser Foundation had previously provided volunteer work sporadically for its employees, typically once a month, before the COVID-19 pandemic put things on hold. Coming out of the COVID lockdowns, the Walser Foundation leadership was having a harder time organizing these volunteer events, which is why it switched to its new annual Week of Giving in 2024.
“Because we have 18 plus retail locations and 1,900 employees, it’s pretty hard to pull everyone altogether to do volunteer initiatives, so we create a menu of things to choose from,” Kleve said.
Kleve said that with this being the second year of their Week of Giving, she and her colleagues were looking to find more volunteer opportunities to add to the palette of choices for Walser employees to sign up for. Elpis has printed t-shirts for employees and their families for company-wide family events such as going to Valley Fair, or previous volunteering events.
“Our employees are walking around with these t-shirts all the time, so that to me is really unique and cool, and I think just from a business perspective, anytime we can expand and impact our own community that’s always a win.”
The Walser Foundation hopes its second annual Week of Giving will strengthen its partnerships with both the new non-profits it is volunteering with and those it has known and worked with for years, such as Elpis. While most of its employee volunteer opportunities are taking place this week, Kleve said it is never opposed to returning and building more bird feeders in 2025.
“Our company for sure always tries to make meaningful partnerships, but I think from a foundation perspective, when we’re building relationships with non-profits, which is how this started, you can write a check and walk away saying you’re done. Or, you can try and find ways to deepen your relationship, and so Elpis to me is a really good example of how we’ve created a strong relationship.”
