Our CAPS president Suzanne Stevens, CSP, shared her CAPS presidential message on CAPS Cares and her personal journey of moving to Africa to support leadership, advocacy and education for women. Suzanne’s inspirational message to encourage CAPS members to be creative in how we give back in our business, got me thinking about how we could do something at our upcoming Evolve Sales Leaders Event.

This past fall I had the opportunity to go on a mission trip to Guatemala to install eco-stoves in homes to help promote better home air quality. While on this trip we visited a local Guatemalan school where we met the children and spent some quality time reading with them. I was excited to sit down and read to the children but I quickly realized the books were in Spanish and I wouldn’t be able to understand the words on the page.

Just as I realized that I wouldn’t be able to give to them, I received something much more rewarding. The children began to read to me. They read aloud from a Clifford book and I was blown away. Who knew that a character from home could transcend so many cultures. I was in such awe when I left that I had to ask the school administrator how I could help. I was determined to give back to them in any way that I could. Teresa (the school administrator) said that the library always needed new books to help the children learn to read, and immediately I knew what I could do to help.

Every year at Christmas we make a donation on behalf of our clients. So this year we donated $1000 USD to the children’s library for new books.

On March 31st we hosted our annual Evolve Event on the changing workforce demographics. We invited 50 sales leaders from various industries all across Ontario and Canada to attend. Before the event we reached out to other Sales Trainers, Professional Speakers, and Coaches who had written their own books on the sales process to donate to our silent auction with proceeds going to the children’s library in Guatemala. We had an overwhelming response and received over 28 books. At the end of the event we had raised $620 for the library to go towards new children’s books.

We are so grateful for all the support towards this worthy cause and hope we can continue to support the school for years to come.

Thanks to Suzanne and her CAPS Presidential Message that ignited the idea for this silent book auction!