Franchising Gives Back 2020: Giving Kids The World

Steven Romaniello, Senior Advisor at Roark Capital Group, had visited Give Kids The World years ago and the integrity of the charity and the volunteers there stayed with him. Steve, along with Foundation Chair Tony Valle, IFA Chair David Barr and incoming Chair Catherine Monson, were all on stage to discuss the initiative and presented a donation of $2,500 to the charity. 

Attendees had lunch that was generously donated by Tropical Smoothie Café and gathered to learn more about the Village, with extensive tours given by staff that highlighted the importance of each detail the location had. Sections of the area are named after children that have visited the charity, such as Marc's DinoPutt course, which is named after a child named Marc, who visited the Village and had a wish of being a dinosaur. Marc, like many other children, is forever immortalized for others to enjoy and to remind themselves of the importance of their volunteer work or visit.

Volunteers traveled to perform various tasks to help the charity, such as beautifying the fences around the location, taking down Christmas decorations and making props for future holiday celebrations. A big thank you to PuroClean for the shirts. 

The experience was wonderful, with an IFA member saying, "This is the best giving back event I've ever done." Franchise professional, small business owner, supplier member or C-suite executive — whatever title members of the IFA may hold personally comes second to that of giver. Franchising truly does give back, and it was both an honor and privilege to help at Give Kids The World.