Corporate team building with kids

What could be a better gift for a kid than a new bike? Perhaps the only thing better could be to have the pride of assembling it yourself with the help of a caring adult. This is what a team of employees from eDocument Resources provided for 10 kids awaiting Kinship mentors on July 20th at Longfellow Park in south Minneapolis. Each of the kids were empowered to be the "project manager" for their bicycle's assembly. One of the girls receiving a bike shared how just within the past couple of days her bike was stolen. So, with haste, one of the eDocument employees purchased locks for all the bikes that were sent home with the kids.

The sponsor of this event, eDocumentResources, made it a team building activity for their employees. Ken Schempp, the company president, heard about Kinship's mentoring program through his church, Westwood Lutheran in St. Louis Park. He wanted to support kids and also engage his employees. It worked out to be a win-win event.

This event provided a fun and meaningful team building activity for the employees and a wonderful gift for the kids who are on Kinship's waiting list, eager to have a Kinship mentor. Kinship of Greater Minneapolis typically has a list of 150 kids, ages 5-15, primarily of single parent homes eager to have adult mentors. Often the kids wait over one year before an individual, couple or family is found that will be their Kinship friend. Mentors are encouraged to include their kids in everyday activities about once a week, for a minimum of one year. In addition to ongoing staff support, group events and ticket opportunities are also afforded throughout the year to support these relationships.

If you have a group that might be interested in sponsoring an event for Kinship kids please contact Gaylene Adams at 612-588-4655, gaylenea@kinship.org.