Earth Day 2022 Recap: Offleash’s Challenge for Change
Earth Day has always been close to our hearts at Offleash. This year, for the third year in a row, we were unable to host our Earth Day volunteer event for our fellow Bay Area agencies—what would have been our 8th, 9th, and 10th annual volunteer events!
Next year, we hope to get back to our roots supporting the Presidio Trust ecological projects, contributing directly to Mother Earth by helping preserve San Francisco’s unique natural heritage with our own (dirty) hands in collaboration with agency friends.
This year, the world honored Earth Day in many different ways—some by getting outdoors and celebrating nature, others by raising awareness and fundraising on behalf of environmental organizations.
At Offleash, we wanted to find a way to do both while having fun and teambuilding. With this in mind, our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm, OffleashCARES, arranged an Earth Day Scavenger Hunt to challenge our team to work together and connect with nature firsthand in support of important causes.
We split into teams and in the weeks leading up, challenged everyone to spend time outdoors for a scavenger hunt. Then, on the morning of Earth Day, we arranged a Power Hour challenge to earn bonus points, where we encouraged everyone to get outdoors and take a photo of something that represents Earth Day to them.
With employees spread across the country from the east coast to the Hawaiian islands, it was a great way for each individual to connect, collaborate, and compete as part of a team to win a substantial donation from OffleashCARES to the environmentally focused charity or nonprofit of their team’s choice.
The winners—Reiñas de la Tierra (which translates to Queens of the Earth)—chose Oceana, a nonprofit ocean conservation organization focused on influencing policy decisions on the national level to preserve and restore the world’s oceans.
Our four other teams put up a great effort for their own important organizations:
- Environmental Defense Fund: a nonprofit seeking practical and lasting solutions to the most serious environmental problems.
- Sierra Club: a grassroots environmental organization that aims to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment.
- Water Mission: a nonprofit that builds safe water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions in developing countries and disaster areas.
- World Wildlife Fund: a conservation organization working around the world to develop solutions that protect communities, wildlife, and the places in which they live.
OffleashCARES is focused 365 days a year on making a mark on our community and the world at large by the giving of our time, services, and profits. While April 22nd may be the official Earth Day, it’s critical that we keep our impact on the planet in mind every day of the year. As Mikaela Bautista, the captain of our winning Earth Day Scavenger Hunt team, explained in her photo submission:
“I put my thumb sideways because we still have such a long way to go when it comes to saving our planet! We must remember that we have nature all around us—but so easily we have built on top of it, and we move past it so fast that we forget there are little ecosystems surrounding us. I truly believe we haven’t gone too far when it comes to saving our planet. THANK you OffleashCARES for doing this, it has reminded me to keep fighting for the generations to come.”
