We did it! We just hosted our largest fundraiser EVER!
Every year, Kobie hosts a fundraiser in support of the St. Petersburg Free Clinic (SPFC). This year, we saw some new challenges due to the global pandemic! But, we were not going to let COVID break tradition – we just had to get a little creative!
Throughout COVID, we encouraged our teammates to stay physically active and take time to look after their mental and physical wellbeing. With this in mind, we decided to use the theme of wellness for our fundraiser as it allowed teammates to stay active and connected to each other while working from home.
We asked teammates to pledge to be active for 30 minutes a day for 30 consecutive days, in what we called the 30×30 Wellness Challenge. This could be anything from a walk with a family member, an intense spin class, or a jog with a furry friend. Alongside staying active, teammates were encouraged to reach out to their networks to ask for support with a donation for the SPFC.
Our initial goal was to raise $25,000, with a dollar-for-dollar match from Kobie up to $25,000. In true Kobie spirit, our teammates surpassed this milestone within only nine days.
With more than 20 days left in the Challenge, we decided to raise the bar and double our goal. Kobie teammates once again crushed this target by raising $55,000! Because of the tremendous effort from our teammates, Kobie doubled their match to $50,000. With this match, we ended up raising over $118,000!
Our teammates are community-minded and came together to help others during a year that has been filled with sadness and heartbreak. For many, this challenge was the positive distraction they needed. “This Challenge was the best thing to happen to us in 2020!”, commented Jamie Mendez, Scrum Master, with many others echoing the sentiments.
To wrap up our fundraiser, Kobie partnered with 3 Daughters Brewing to host a 60-minute fitness class put on by three local gyms, Spintensity, Iron Fit Performance, and YogaSix, with all of the proceeds going directly to the SPFC. This was our way of extending the goodness to our local community as we know that everyone loves to give back to those in need!
Kobie is passionate about fundraising for the SPFC because more than 134,000 residents in Pinellas County are food insecure, including many thousands of children. This year in particular, the Clinic has seen a massive increase in demand for their services, and families and individuals who never thought that they would need the support of the clinic are reaching out to them for help. In 2018, the St Pete Free Clinic distributed about 5 million pounds of food throughout the community all year; in just the summer of 2020 alone, they distributed over 6 million pounds of food. For this reason, we were motivated to make this year’s fundraiser larger than ever before!
Our dedication to giving back to our community in St. Petersburg is one of the things that makes Kobie unique. In a time where there is so much uncertainty, we are extremely proud to spread positivity and hope.
