FORT COLLINS, Colo., Feb. 18, 2020 — Otter Products will close its doors in all global locations for a day of volunteering. Otter Products employees will be partnering with local schools and nonprofit organizations in the fourth annual closed2open event.
Last year’s closed2open event generated over 6,000 volunteer hours for nonprofits worldwide from Otter Products employees. Volunteer projects aimed to encourage future entrepreneurs and philanthropists to create a lasting change in their communities.
“closed2open is a statement to our culture,” said Otter Products Founder and Chief Visionary Officer Curt Richardson. “All we want to do is to be able to give kids the tools, give them the spark to ignite entrepreneurship in their hearts.”
Projects range in size from a couple of volunteers to an army of them. Nearly 100 volunteers are taking over a Fort Collins middle school to work on a school-wide Poptivism activity in partnership with PopSockets and Project Heart, a philanthropy education program developed by the OtterCares Foundation. In total, Otter Products employees will volunteer at more than 60 education-based projects that day in the U.S. Otter Products offices in Asia and Europe also closed their doors to volunteer and spread the company’s “We Grow to Give” mission globally.
“We’ve always believed in giving back and our core belief is ‘to whom much is given, much is expected,'” said OtterCares Founder Nancy Richardson. “One person can do great things, but together collectively we can move mountains. We wanted to create a ripple. A ripple in our society, a ripple through our company, a ripple through the whole community.”
Otter Products encourages employees to volunteer year-round by offering 24 hours of time off each year and had a 94 percent participation rate in its volunteer program in 2019. The national average for corporate-volunteer participation is only 30 percent.1
“Our mission statement is ‘we grow to give,'” said Otter Products CEO Jim Parke. “When our employees go home at the end of the day, they’ve made a difference not only in the lives of children who will someday be the changemakers in the world, but also in their own lives. Giving back enriches us all.”
Otter Products invites other companies and individuals to join in on Feb. 19 and throughout the year to volunteer in their communities. Share your volunteer mission and story or follow along with Otter Products on social media using #closed2open.