Alexandra Davis is a Communications and Social Media Manager at Russell Investments. After working on her company’s United Way workplace campaign for a few years, Alexandra was inspired to get more involved with United Way, so she recently joined the Emerging Leaders Marketing Committee. On the committee she focuses on enhancing the volunteer experience for Emerging Leaders and getting more involved in the local community. Read on to check out her experience volunteering at Treehouse.

One of my favorite things about volunteering with United Way is learning about organizations and gaining a better understanding of how they’re making an impact in the community. My recent experience with Treehouse did just this and volunteering in their Wearhouse with fellow Emerging Leaders during one of our Second Saturday events was a very rewarding.

Treehouse’s mission is to create a world where every child that has experienced a crisis of parenting has the opportunities and support to pursue their dreams and become productive members of our community. The Treehouse Wearhouse, where we spent our time volunteering, is a store where youth and their caregivers can shop for high-quality clothing, shoes, school supplies, toys, books and other essentials—for free. One of the great things about the store is that they work closely with the community to ensure that items reflect current trends, brands and fashions in addition to providing the basics that every kid needs.

During our time, we sorted, tagged and restocked merchandise that had been recently donated to the Wearhouse. As we sorted through the merchandise, I would see items in the piles and couldn’t help but think to myself, “How cool is that!” The foster children who get to shop in the store must be overjoyed with the selection they get to choose from—and at no cost. It really demonstrates the thoughtfulness of those in our local community by donating what they have to a great cause.

The welcoming Treehouse staff reiterated to our group numerous times throughout the event how volunteers are essential to their work, enabling more than 2,000 foster children each year to shop for the things they need and want. Our volunteer group was able to accomplish a lot in the short four-hour timeframe, allowing us to see firsthand how we can all support one of United Way’s key priorities—giving kids an equal chance to succeed. It was a very rewarding experience and I think it’s safe to say we will definitely be back to volunteer at Treehouse!