The end of a year is traditionally a time for celebration and kindness, marked by compassionate acts and spreading happiness – be it to close family and friends or strangers in need. The spirit of giving abounded this past festive season at Samsung C&T’s Trading and Construction office in Seoul, too, as employees came together to take part in two dynamic and heartwarming fundraising events – all for charity.
Sympathetic Sweepstakes
The first charity event held over the last two weeks of December was a raffle that combined the excitement of a contest with the kindness of donating, aptly titled ‘Love of Drawing Lots’. Employees were invited to donate either in person, at the office’s Speedgate entrance, on December 18th and 19th, or online via a dedicated page between the 17th and the 25th.
Able to contribute either in the form of a cash donation or by salary deduction pledge, employees who donated over 30,000 KRW were entered into a lot-drawing contest. The prizes awaiting the lucky winners included scarves for first place and socks for second place – with all entrants receiving chocolates, the perfect treat for the festive season – and a commemorative badge.
The event saw over 400 employees of the Seoul office donate over 15.6 million KRW during the charity contest period, a figure that was then doubled by Samsung C&T who pledged to match each and every donation made by employees – bringing the total amount raised for charity to over 31 million KRW.
Although this was just one of many annual donation events organized by the C&T Employee Representative Committee, this event was particularly special because the prizes offered were produced by local social enterprises. Furthermore, Engineer and member of the Employee Representation Committee Chang-sun Park also highlights that the event was especially meaningful given that all donations were matched by the company. “Thanks to the high levels of support and participation we received, we were able to collect more for charity than last year’s event.”
A Bazaar with a Big Heart
The second charity event that took place at C&T Seoul during the festive period was the company’s annual ‘Bazaar of Love’ event, held on December 11th. The proceeds from this yearly tradition always go to those in need, with all items sold sourced and kindly donated by the employees themselves.
This year, over 630 items including clothes, accessories, daily necessities, alcohol, sports equipment, books and even electronics were donated and sold at the bazaar. Moreover, items made by C&T’s in-house embroidery and craft clubs, such as hair pins and brooches, were sold thanks to their generous donation by those who created them.
Along with providing donations and coming along on the day to purchase items for a good cause, employees helped across all stages of the event’s process – from organizing the bazaar’s layout and arranging donated items to helping take payment from their colleagues.
The money raised by 2018’s bazaar goes to a child known as ‘Ji Eun’ who was born with the life-altering cleft lip and palate condition. The severity of her case means that, if left untreated, the disease could cause complications with her ears that would make it difficult for her to speak or hear. High surgery costs have stood in the way of her receiving key operations to fix this, and so it was decided that the money raised by this year’s event would go to aiding Ji Eun and her family.
Sung-hwan Kim, Assistant Manager for Logistics in the Planning Team, remarked that at the December 11th bazaar, the quality of items was higher than they had been last year – meaning that the event was more of a success. “I hope the proceeds from this charity event will be of great assistance in treating Ji Eun”, he noted.
Samsung C&T is dedicated to giving back to the communities it is part of the world over. In 2019, the Samsung C&T Group will continue to show its commitment to generating positive transformation, helping those in need and changing lives for the better.
