Cares Month at LexisNexis: Giving back to our communities

September is Cares Month here at LexisNexis Legal & Professional, and indeed across all RELX! While our LexisNexis colleagues strive to give back all year round, September is a particularly active time where teams across the organization go out and do good works. Here’s a look at a few events that took place this month across LexisNexis offices…

A Walk to Remember

In Toronto, Jay Brecher’s team participated in a charity walk with the Terry Fox Foundation, raising more than $2,000 to fight against cancer. Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete who, having lost his leg in 1977 and in 1981, using a prosthetic leg, ran 3,339 miles across Canada to raise money to fight cancer. In the years since, the foundation named after him has raised more than $750 million for this cause.

Brecher’s team took part in a 5K walk, which he said was shortened to 3K due to the sweltering weather. They had a water station set up at the end of the route to ensure everyone’s safety, but everyone still had a great time and was proud to have raised more than $2,000.

There Will Be Blood

Although he didn’t participate as part of a team, Alex Millar of our LexisNexis UK business chose to give a literal part of himself up for a good cause. Millar donated blood to the National Health Service at the Leeds City Blood Donor Centre!

Everything went well, he said, and “It’s an excellent opportunity to help people in need.”

Eat Pray Love

A popular way to give back for LexisNexis teams is to work with food banks and other organizations that help feed the hungry. This month, several LexisNexis teams participated in events to help sort and package food for those in need.

In Dayton, Ohio, Gina McGuire’s team helped the Dayton Food Bank stuff bags of food for children. In all, she said, her team of seven helped put together more than 500 bags of food that will help feed hungry children in the Dayton area. These bags, she said, are distributed every Friday to people in the area.

“It was a lot of work but very fulfilling,” McGuire said.

Similarly, a Dayton team led by Glenn Zeiser helped package meals to be distributed to senior citizens. Zeiser said they packed enough meals to fill six pallets, about 150 boxes of food.

“It truly is rewarding to volunteer and make a difference in people's lives,” Zeiser said, “and it's wonderful that the LN Cares program allows us time to do it!”

In Raleigh, Archana Rao’s LexisNexis InterAction team helped sort and bag a whopping 18,512 lbs of potatoes and sweet potatoes to help feed families in need. North Carolina is a national leader in producing sweet potatoes, Rao said, and some of the ones they sorted “were the size of footballs.”

Rao’s team worked with the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, which Rao said distributes some 15 million pounds of food in the area every year.

“Food insecurity is a growing problem in the world and in the USA. 213,890 people in the 10 counties around us are facing hunger,” she said. “We are happy to use the hours LexisNexis provides each employee to help the food bank help our neighbors in need.”

Also in Raleigh, Suresh Babu Athota and 14 others helped the food bank sort apples!

“The team was energetic and went above and beyond during the event,” Athota said, ultimately bagging some 11,920 apples for the community.

And last but not least, Stefan Kowalewski and a team of 13 others took part in an event with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle Farm. Kowalewski said the farm aims to teach community members to grow healthy foods and explore creative solutions to ending hunger.

At the farm, Kowalewski and his team helped plant and harvest vegetables that will be distributed to local food pantries, schools, and senior citizens, as well as sold at the farm’s own farm stand.

Everyone “felt good about being able to plant and harvest crops, knowing their efforts benefit the local community,” he said.

Across the Universe

Across LexisNexis, other teams held book drives, educational events, and more. It’s just part of our efforts, big and small, to shape a more just world. To learn more about opportunities available to LexisNexis employees, check out our Careers page!