Once again, Firefly Legal has made its yearly contribution to Trinity Services, a local non-profit organization that helps people with developmental disabilities. The organization provides therapy, counseling and other support services, including educational programs.
Firefly makes a point to stay on the forefront of the latest technology, making upgrades and updating computer electronics regularly. This keeps our case management system, process server apps, and other technology all running smoothly together and working better for our clients. This year’s donation included 3 Laptops, 25 Workstations, 7 Printers, and 38 Monitors. The value of these electronics is estimated at nearly $8,000.
Last year, we spoke with Tabitha Schafer, the Director of Day Programs and Behavior Analyst at Trinity Services, and she explained that the donation will be immensely helpful for individuals at Trinity. We enjoy doing things to help others in our community, and we’re grateful that we’re still in a position to be able to contribute.
You may have noticed that over the last few months we have been sporting different awareness ribbons in our signature line and on our social media profiles. Firefly tries to make sure that we engage in some kind of a philanthropy project regularly to give back to our community, spread awareness about a cause, show support for our community, and to share some good news. In September, when we raised awareness about Childhood Cancers and Ovarian Cancer, we got the idea to use the ribbons in our social media and signature lines. With that first ribbon, we realized that we can show support to many different causes year-round. Ribbons have always been a great way to show support and raise awareness about a cause because. Wearing or displaying the ribbon encourages people to look to see what the ribbon means, in turn learning a little bit about the cause and becoming more educated.
November is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month – We’re doing our part to spread some knowledge and raise awareness about this devastating disease.
As today is the last day of September, I wanted to thank everyone at Firefly for participating in September’s Ovarian Cancer and Childhood Cancer Awareness campaigns. Your support in going both teal and gold has been great to see, and I’m glad that we could spread some knowledge and awareness about the causes. While this is just a one part in helping the cause, it is great to see everyone come together to support of these causes and in spreading awareness.
Though this will be the final post on this cause this year, I wanted to leave you with a couple more options to personally continue to support awareness of Childhood Cancer and Ovarian Cancer if you choose to do so.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is a great organization that provides fun ways to help support Childhood Cancer Awareness. ALSF formed when a childhood cancer patient wanted to have a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for childhood cancers. Though Alex Scott, the child who started the first lemonade stand, died at age 4, her legacy carries on through the foundation. To date, they have raised more than $60 million toward finding a cure, as reported on their website (www.alexslemonade.org)
Ovarian Cancer Research Fund is one of the oldest and largest Ovarian Cancer charities in the US. On their website, they provide instructions how to host a fundraiser (along with a HUGE list of many ideas), how to donate, and how to be active in the organization. You can access their website here: http://www.ocrf.org/
By doing a quick Google search, you too can find other organizations to help support awareness and research of the two deadly cancers. The organizations/foundations that have been mentioned in previous emails and in this email here are in no way the only organizations out there. Firefly supports all of our staff in researching and finding positive awareness campaigns, but does not actively endorse any one organization or effort in particular.
PS. For our friends in Chicago, have you seen the skyline lit up teal? Firefly’s Jennifer Dlugolecki organized that through her participation in the NOCC.
Friday, September 6th, 2013 is the National Day to Wear Teal in support of Ovarian Cancer Awareness. Ovarian Cancer is the number one cause of gynecological deaths, and every year an estimated 14,400 women will die each year, according to Ovarian Cancer National Alliance.
This month, Firefly Legal is participating in spreading awareness about this cause. Check out pictures from our Corporate and Tampa Offices as we support Ovarian Cancer Awareness!
Firefly Legal Goes Teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day!
Firefly Goes Teal to Support Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day!
As you know, Firefly is taking the guiding principle of “capturing and rewarding knowledge” outside the scope of civil process service and making it the driving force for involvement with September’s Ovarian Cancer and Childhood Cancer Awareness campaigns.
Firefly tries to get involved with as many philanthropic efforts as we can. We are in the business of delivering bad news, and this allows us the opportunity to do some good by making a positive impact in the lives of our friends and neighbors. Hopefully, we can make an impact, no matter how small, in helping to educate and spread awareness about these deadly diseases.
Why?
Jenn Dlugolecki, our Director of Business Development has been involved with the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition for many years, and this year I decided to get everyone at Firefly involved as one of our philanthropic efforts. Jenn’s involvement is personal, as her mom was a victim of ovarian cancer. Through the organization, she has participated in their annual walk, registration booths at events, and is part of the Teal Lights Committee. If you’re ever downtown in September and see the buildings lit up teal, Jenn facilitated that. Her goal is to get the whole Chicago skyline to go teal each year.
Mary Marvinac, a member of our skip tracing team at the corporate office, brought my attention to Childhood Cancer Awareness, which is promoted by the American Childhood Cancer Organization, among many other organizations. After being inspired to learn more about childhood cancer after listening to Taylor Swift’s song “Ronan,” during Stand Up 2 Cancer Telethon, Mary researched the song and found that it was written about Ronan Thompson, a boy who battled (and later succumbed to) neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer. The boy’s mother wrote a blog at first about her son, updating friends and family on his condition, but later used it as a platform to spread awareness. After reading the blog, Mary was compelled to try to help in any way she could.
Ovarian Cancer
This year, already 22,240 cases of ovarian cancer have been diagnosed.[1] Ovarian Cancer is the 10th most common cancer in women and the 5th cause of cancer-related death in women. It is the deadliest of all gynecological cancers. Every 24 minutes, a woman is diagnosed with ovarian cancer.[2]
We’re spreading awareness by helping to educate people. Early detection can help save lives. Symptoms are subtle and common, and basically sound like whatever you’ve had to eat isn’t agreeing with you:
Abdominal pressure, fullness
Pelvic discomfort
Persistent indigestion
If you or someone you know is experiencing these symptoms, encourage her to make an appointment with her gynecologist. You can be evaluated for high risk factors, and from there, blood tests, transvaginal ultrasounds, and pelvic exams can help detect cancer early.
Childhood Cancer
According to the American Childhood Cancer Association, Childhood Cancers are a collection of 12 different kinds of cancer that typically only affect children. It’s the leading cause of death for children under the age of 18. Survival rates vary among the different types of cancer; some can have a 5 year survival rate of 90% while others have a rate of less than 5%.
Stunningly, the drugs used to treat children were developed in the 1950s. Sadly, there has not been much development in fighting these cancers; in the past 20 years, the FDA has only approved one new drug exclusively for pediatric patients. The current treatments leave almost 2/3 of survivors with at least one chronic health affect. [3]
There are many things you can do to get involved with this cause. The ACCO recommends contacting your state representatives to insist that childhood cancers be added to the state’s cancer plan legislation. You can volunteer for a childhood cancer organization, start a support group or outreach organization (or participate in one), and of course, by donating or raising funds to support childhood cancer research.
Firefly’s Promise
The easiest thing we can do is to take time out to help educate people about these deadly diseases. By being educated and aware, the better equipped we are to support those who need it. We encourage anyone who is able to volunteer, donate, or raise funds for one or both of these cancers to do so. Together, we can do a lot. Join us on social media with these hashtags #gogold #whyteal and also continue to check out our blog- we’ll be sharing information on these causes every week this month.
At Firefly, we make it a priority to support causes that make an impact on our community and in our hearts. As process servers, we don’t really get the opportunity to deal with good news. So, we do our best to engage in efforts that bring people up, encourage, and educated. From last years’ Firefly Run and school supply drive to our recent animal shelter supply drive (among many other efforts), we have made it a point to give back to our community in any way we can and as often as we can.
When we think about who we are as a civil process service company and who we want our company to be, we think back to our company promise and guiding principles:
Proactively serve every client with a personal, responsive and appreciative attitude
Tenaciously pursue greatness in our performance
Capture and reward knowledge
Be flexible and adapt quickly to change
Set the bar high for integrity and principles-driven choices
Find an excuse to smile every day.
This month for our philanthropic effort, we’re going to do something a little bit different. We’re going to apply “capture and reward knowledge” outside the scope of civil process service and make it the driving force for our campaign to get involved with a special cause. September is the designated month for two causes that are very close to two of Firefly’s employees: ovarian cancer and childhood cancer.
Be sure to check out our social media sites and our blog to stay updated and educated. In the meantime, you can learn more about this organizations on your own through the American Childhood Cancer Organization and through the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. We hope that you can join us and help spread the word to your friends and family, too.
Firefly tries to take part in some type of community service effort on a quarterly basis because it’s important to us that we’re investing in and truly serving our community (…and not just papers). In the past, Firefly Legal has participated in food drives, school supply drives, 5k Walks, fundraisers and benefits. This time, we decided to do something a little bit different.
April went to the dogs… cats, horses, and bunnies, etc. at Firefly Legal. Headquartered in Mokena, IL,
During the months of April and May, many of our offices participated in an animal shelter drive, helping to raise awareness for the prevention of cruelty to animals. Our Illinois offices concluded the shelter drive at the end of April; in Florida, we extended the drive through May. In donating to the shelters, Firefly associates were able to join forces and make a big impact at local shelters; a cause many of the employees were really excited about and passionate about contributing.
The Firefly associates from all of the branch offices were excited to participate. Associates Kristi Lyles of the Affidavits department in Mokena, IL, and Adam Pehas in our IT department of the corporate office donated items to the drive, even though neither currently owns a pet. In South Carolina, Dawn McCoy regularly contributes to the Carolina Hearts Aussie Rescue, and in Illinois, Danielle Loonam volunteers for It’s A Pittie Rescue and even adopted a dog from the organization. Jody Schuldt helped organize the donations at the Mokena, IL satellite office; her team produced a staggering amount of supplies for the Mokena, IL NAWS Illinois Humane Society animal shelter.
And that’s just a small snapshot of the folks at Firefly who were excited to take part in the cause.
Firefly Legal is back home after travelling to Bastrop, TX for the NASP Litigation Skills and Management Conference and to Jacksonville, FL for the USFN conference. Both conferences provided infinite amounts of knowledge for attendees, of course a little entertainment, and definitely plenty of networking opportunities.
At the USFN conference, Firefly Legal’s Jennifer Dlugolecki showed that process servers care by participating in the Second Harvest Community Service project. Firefly Legal was the only process server that participated in the community service project, which works to fight hunger in Central Florida. Participating in the Community Service project included both a monetary donation and a time donation, as volunteers worked together for the cause. It’s important to Firefly, especially as process servers in Florida, that we are working to help out the local communities of the areas we serve.
Check out the pictures below!
Here’s the whole crew who stopped by to help with the community service project at Second Harvest.
Check out the healthy food at Second Harvest.
Volunteers work at Second Harvest.
Lots of healthy food was packaged and ready to help fight hunger!
Meanwhile, in Texas, Firefly Legal’s Stephanie Irvine was busy working the booth at the NASP conference. The conference provided a lot of informative sessions, with both property and auto tracks, on subrogation topics. Legal Humorist Sean Carter was the Keynote Speaker, providing both tips and laughs for attendees. Jeff Ricke of Hiday & Ricke and Susan Benson of Susan Benson and Associates also provided a great general session about pretrial tactics,strategy, and managing a high volume practice. There were a lot of great tips for those with a smaller firm as well as those with a larger one.
Check out some pictures from the NASP conference, which was held at the Lost Pines Resort:
Giving back to the community is hugely important to Firefly Legal. This year, we decided to do a traditional canned goods food drive at all of our offices, as well as an online food drive.
The participation was fantastic, and we were able to help out a lot of people in our local communities. For our physical canned food drive, our team in Tampa really went above and beyond by gathering SIX boxes for the Metropolitan Ministries. Canned and non-perishable goods were also collected at our other office locations, too. Food pantries in Illinois, South Carolina, Ohio, and Florida will receive the donations.
Though we’ve wrapped up our canned goods drive, we are keeping our fundraising page on Feeding America open through Thanksgiving. Feeding America works with large corporate manufacturers to secure food, so they can get more food for the money; every dollar raised will provide eight complete meals. The funds raised through Feeding America will go to a network of over 200 food banks/pantries across America.
If you would like to see more pictures, be sure to check out our Facebook page.
Firefly Legal was recently featured in the Serve Report from Serve Now. The article focused on how and why process servers should give back to their local communities. Firefly Legal makes it part of their mission to support their local communities in any way they can.
Check it out, and be sure to check in with the Serve Report regularly for awesome industry news and information. It’s a great read!
Firefly Legal Gathered a total of 314
items in their Staples for Students drive.
There are a number of process serving firms out there that take the time to participate in community events, drives, donations, and more. ServeNow.com is on a mission to highlight process serving firms that give back to their communities. Keep reading to find out how Firefly Legal gave back to communities in several states.
From August 15th through September 10th, Firefly Legal offices from across the country joined together to participate in the Staples for Students school supply drive. Staples for Students is a nationwide campaign that encourages businesses, celebrities, communities, and more to collect school supplies to be donated to the communities across the country.
Over the two week period, Firefly legal was able to collect over 300 items across multiple offices to be distributed to Staples stores in Illinois, Florida, and Ohio. Firefly Legal Marketing Specialist Stephanie Irvine had a lot to say on why the company participated.
“Participating in the Staples for Students school supply drive was an easy choice because it was an opportunity to make a difference in the educational experience of local kids,” Irvine explained. “Many of us at Firefly are parents, and we know how costly school supplies can be. We just wanted to contribute to a cause in which all of our offices could make a big impact in our local communities.”
The impact came in the form of 314 total items including crayons, book covers, pencils, papers, backpacks, and more. But this isn’t the first time Firefly has given back to the community. In November of last year Firefly’s Tampa office participated in a food drive for Tampa Can Do Attitude. Most recently Firefly Legal donated computer equipment to Trinity Services, a non-profit organization that supports disabled individuals with educational programs, services, and counseling following an upgrade of company equipment. The donation included 15 flat-panel monitors, 12 computers, 5 laptops, and a server.
“We are family people and we care about our community,” Irvine explained. “As a process serving company, we’re not always in the business of delivering good news, so we like to extend a helping hand whenever we can.” She also notes the influence participation in community drives has had on the company, saying, “It helps promote a happy workplace.”
Participating in the Staples for Students school supply drive was an easy choice because it was an opportunity to make a difference in the educational experience of local kids
Stephanie Irvine, Firefly Legal
When asked why they would encourage other process serving firms to conduct donation drives, Irvine replied simply, “Why not? It’s simple to organize and easy to contribute, and these types of events are great for company morale because it gets everyone excited.”
Irvine closed by noting that the Firefly team was joined together for the benefit of communities from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago. “The drive allowed all of our offices to unite on a company-wide scale, but still contribute to their local communities.” Irvine says that although Firefly Legal is a national company, they’re still local guys at heart.
Know a Process Server Who is Giving Back? Let Us Know!
ServeNow.com is working to highlight process servers that are giving back. Has your process serving firm or a process server you know gone above and beyond to help your community? Contact ServeNow today and share your story!
Lots of healthy food was packaged and ready to help fight hunger!
