Yesterday afternoon we kicked off our United Way campaign. Our company won’t donate much, mostly because we are a group between the ages of 22-27. School loans, car payments and credit cards consume most of what our folks earn. Still.

Most charitable organizations think of us folks at the upper end of seniority and paygrades to fill up their buckets. They shouldn’t. I’d go after the Gen x’ers and y’s. They have a lifetime of giving ahead of them. Even though it is very easy to avoid giving back to the community financially when you are in your 20’s, there is no better time to learn, and to make it a habit. Interestingly, this is the first year according to the most recent Donor Survey that says that twentysomethings are giving more than the baby boomers. Embarrassing (for us boomers) but true.

Anyhow we kicked off our company’s campaign with a pumpkin-carving contest and why not? We search for almost any reason to have an event, er, contest, and the messier the better.

We delivered about 80 carved pumpkins to a local group called Opportunity Partners, an organization that helps provide employment, housing and education services to people with special needs.

US NEWS liked the idea, too. They even ran the pictures and they never do that.

I am not sure what gave me a bigger thrill…seeing our people carve pumpkins while learning how to support local good causes, or the look on the faces of the folks at Opportunity Partners.

It was a tie.

Here are some pictures from our carving event. Enjoy….we did and most of all, they did.