Rainbows celebrated the start of its 45th year on June 8, 2017. To commemorate this agency milestone, Rainbows held celebrations at both Wichita locations. The fun kicked off at Kids’ Point with a Rainbows-inspired breakfast and ended in the afternoon at Kids’ Cove with a pirate-themed party. What a wonderful day it was! Volunteers from Enterprise Rent-A-Car assisted with both celebrations. Kristen Sellin, an employee of Enterprise, tells about their volunteer experience below:
I am Kristen Sellin, a Talent Development Specialist for Enterprise. We chose to host “a day of caring” on June 8th this summer. This day of caring is a time to give back locally with our interns from around the region. I was personally familiar with Rainbows United, but our Business Rental Team at Enterprise had recently volunteered at the agency in a different capacity. They told me about what they did and why it was great, which is why I reached out about bringing our interns for this special day of volunteering.
I always try to find something that will make a lasting memory with my interns and really show why we have community care days. I have found that working with kids is one of the best ways to get that across. When I learned that Rainbows was turning 45 years old on June 8th, and we had the opportunity to volunteer at their celebrations, I knew we had to help! Being a part of that is not something we will forget.
We brought about 20 people total to Rainbows, between our administrative and rental employees along with our summer interns. Rainbows was throwing not one, but two, 45th anniversary “birthday” parties. We started our day at Rainbows’ East location, Kids’ Point, to help set up and decorate for their first celebration! We did our best to make sure the place looked special. I think our employees enjoyed the sidewalk chalk as much as the kids did. We got to participate in the party by serving (and eating!) breakfast and passing out fun party hats and noisemakers to staff, children, and special guests. Our interns were able to interact and play outside with the kids in childcare after singing “happy birthday” to Rainbows.
Once the first party was complete, we cleaned everything up, went to lunch, and made our way to Kids’ Cove, to do it all over again. The kids at Camp Woodchuck made sure to keep us entertained and were such fun to hang out with. We even had a great basketball dunking contest and dance party while at Kids’ Cove.
Most of our volunteers were our interns from this summer. They are a great group of students in a highly competitive internship that also makes sure to focus on giving back to the community. I think we all learned that giving back can be fun and that just because someone is different doesn’t really make them unrelatable to us. They had a great time interacting with the kids, and I know we would all go back in a heartbeat. We have talked with each other about how special the day was.
Enterprise loves getting involved with the community and helps in a variety of ways. All of our employees get 2 days a year to volunteer their time and get paid by Enterprise! Every year we also do a huge United Way campaign. Locally, we work with Boys & Girls Club, Relay for Life, Alzheimer’s Association, Go Red Campaign and many more. Enterprise really allows us to be able to give back to the community that supports us. You can learn more about our Enterprise Holding Foundation here.
