LINC and corporate partner Timberland are celebrating Black History Month with service. In response to the racial equality movement that took place last summer, Timberland made a commitment to support the Black and BIPOC communities in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and NYC- all cities that helped put the brand on the map! During the month of February, Timberland virtual employee volunteers worked with nonprofit organizations like LINC that are fighting for racial justice and education equity. Timberland is a global outdoor lifestyle brand, which for over 28 years, has offered employees paid time for community service. Timberland employees are supporting LINC’s mission with two virtual community service projects. The first project engaged volunteers in developing a list of children's books written by authors of color, and books with protagonists of color. Over 30 volunteers attended a Zoom orientation led by LINC, then worked in breakout sessions to conduct research and produce a comprehensive list that is organized by theme and target age. For the second project, Timberland volunteers will create learning games for early readers ages 0-5. LINC will include the games in toolkits that we give to parents who attend our Parent Workshops and Family Academy programs. The games will incorporate both the parent and child and will focus on the parent facilitating the activity with the child. They will help connect our virtual programs to activities that take place in the home and will make reading fun for our families as we all spend these cold, dark winter days indoors. Timberland has taken action to address racial injustice one volunteer project at a time. They are truly wonderful partners. They managed all project logistics and made sure the projects were a light lift on their nonprofit partners. Thank you to Timberland’s Corporate, Retail and Field teams for your service to LINC. Thank you also to Goodera for facilitating the virtual volunteer experiences. To learn more about LINC's Corporate Volunteer Program, please contact Chabely Ramos at cramos@lincnyc.org.