Our Community

For the third year in a row, in honor of Veterans’ Day, Corporate Central partnered with Christmas with the Vets. Started by Jeff “Doc” Dentice, a Vietnam veteran, in 1988, Christmas with the Vets is a holiday party for the hospitalized veterans at the Milwaukee VA Medical center.

Additionally, Corporate Central hosted a Thanksgiving celebration lunch where employees could donate $5 for an all you can eat lunch to benefit Christmas with the Vets.

As part of the YP Conference in Madison, WI, attendees were invited to close out Saturday morning with volunteer initiatives.

Of the 60 in attendance, 16 of them went to St. Vincent de Paul to help assist families shop for healthy food options and assist with stocking and sorting. The remaining participants made cards and blankets to donate to the Children’s Miracle Network.

Corporate Central and Special Olympics Wisconsin teamed up to host the Titletown Showdown First Annual Credit Union Challenge at City Stadium in Green Bay, WI. Together with our sponsors Fiserv, U.S. Bank, and Elan, we raised over $10,000 to benefit Special Olympics Wisconsin.

Credit unions from across the state of Wisconsin — Capital, Corporate Central, Fox Communities, Shoreline, and Simplicity — came together to form flag football teams. Congratulations goes out to Capital Credit Union for taking home the trophy. Other credit union atttendees, participants, volunteers, and donors included Fond du Lac, Governmental Employees, Marshfield Medical Center, N.E.W., Oakdale, Royal, and Verve. Thank you everyone for making this year a fun, successful event!

As part of our fundraising initiatives for our Titletown Showdown event, benefitting Special Olympics Wisconsin, chef Chris Felton and chef Nick Fanning grilled brats, burgers, and hot dogs that staff could purchase for lunch. 

Corporate Central's departments also competed against each other in penny wars. While Accounting and Business Development were distracted by friendly competition, IT stole the gold.

Overall, we raised $651.66 in the penny wars and $141 from our cook out. All proceeds will benefit Special Olympics Wisconsin athletes.

In June, the FUN Committee held an infant loss box donation drive for the Aurora West Allis Women’s Pavilion. Overall, Corporate Central raised over $1,300 and donated 124 blankets, 60 3” bears, 60 7” bears, 32 medium boxes, 32 packs of stickers, 30 books (for siblings dealing with the death), 30 large boxes, 24 bags of decorations and embellishment items, 23 rolls of ribbon, 23 strands of pre-cut ribbon, 20 fabric paints, 16 paint markers, 12 glue sticks, 4 large storage totes, 4 small storage totes, 4 packs of paper, 2 gorilla glues, 2 pairs of scissors, glue dots, and a crafting cabinet.

Aurora West Allis Women’s Pavilion offers new moms and expecting parents the amenities and resources they need to be successful. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, some cases lead to infant loss, which includes, however is not limited to, miscarriage, stillbirth, SIDS, and the death of a newborn. In order to accommodate for such tragic losses, the staff at Aurora West Allis Women’s Pavilion create keepsake boxes for the mothers, parents, and families affected by infant loss. Currently, nurses on staff are donating all of the supplies and time to make those keepsakes. On average, the hospital needs to make 8-12 boxes per WEEK. In the spirit of our initiatives, we are seeking the help and assistance of our fellow co-workers to aid in the creation of these boxes by helping us to collect items for a donation drive that is the very FIRST of its kind for the hospital.

Our team, "Corporate Wild Walkers," participated in the Walk MS: Milwaukee 2018 to help build awareness for multiple sclerosis (MS). The event drives groundbreaking research, provides life-changing programs, and guarantees a supportive community for those who need it most. Overall, we raised $4,100!

We had roughly 30 participants in the event. Go team!

The FUN Committee came up with some creative ways to benefit the Children's Miracle Network. In February, our staff and their families got together to enjoy an afternoon full of fun in the snow at The Rock Snow Park.

Our families enjoyed spending time together at the snow hill.

We accepted donations to participate in our Corporate Madness basketball bracket, had crazy sock day every Friday, and held a sock drive. Overall - we raised $150 and 136 pairs of socks to donate!

Fridays were Crazy Sock Days! Our staff compared which socks were the best of the best.

From hand puppets to toe warmers - our goal was to help make a child's stay at a local hospital a little brighter.

In December, Corporate Central employees held a non perishable food drive. We filled two bins full of donations for Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. 

Corporate Central's team posing for a picture with our donations.

In September, we held some friendly competition between teams during Corporate Central Summer Olympics while raising money to benefit Special Olympics of Wisconsin. Overall, we raised $2,100!

Team Own It had the opportunity to compete at the Second Annual Titletown Showdown at City Stadium.

One of our friendly compeititions included a bocce ball tournament.

Another competition was held on the mini-golf course.

We all enjoyed Corporate Central Summer Camp participating in fun, creative and memorable activities and we're happy to share that we also hit our goal of creating 1,000 para-cord bracelets for Operation Gratitude. The bracelets were included in care packages for our troops overseas.

Staff participated in “theme” days including Graphic T-shirt Day (above) and Patriotic Day (below). 

John Rice beating Nick Fanning during a Baggo face off during a friendly Summer Camp competition.

 

 

Pete Iwanowski & Kay Schlumpf

Staff took some Saturday free time and went bowling together.  It was a great chance for employees to get together outside of work and bring their families.  Many smiles and laughs were shared during the afternoon of fun.

 

Gail Kearney & Mark Carew

As part of our charitable initiatives in the month of May, Corporate Central set up a donation box for employees to drop off pet supplies that are in need at the Waukesha county shelter. HAWS (Humane Animal Welfare Society) is an "open admissions" shelter meaning they accept animals regardless of their age, breed, and health.  Learn more about HAWS...

 

Jeanine Giersch & Stephanie Schmidt

St. Patrick's Day is a day of Shenanigans so what a perfect day for us to be silly! Staff were encouraged to bust out their green apparel, whether it be crazy wigs and hats to overalls and obnoxious socks, all styles were welcome.

Each staff member was asked to decorate a shamrock or "Lucky Charm" and help decorate the office to get us all in the St. Patty's day spirit. We ate Lucky Charms for breakfast and enjoyed Shamrock Shakes for an afternoon treat.

 

Stephanie Schmidt, Jeanine Giersch, Sandy Garcia-Alvarez, Shannon Cate & Karen Christie

We also collected toy donations through the month of March to benefit children currently staying in Children's Hospital. We were very pleased to see the nicely decorated green bin in our lobby filled with generous donations!

 

Lisa Wolfram and Gail Kearney

Each staff member decorated a stocking and completed a short questionnaire to put inside. Staff had to guess who's stocking was who's based on how the stocking was decorated and how they answered the questions.

We also had collection barrels placed in our lobby to support the Holiday Food Drive to benefit Feeding America - Southeast WI. All food collected was distributed to food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, day care centers, and youth and senior programs to feed those in need this Holiday Season.

 

Dawn Beyer, Chris Felton, Kevin Chiappetta, Nick Fanning

The Milwaukee Marine's 'Toys for Tots' campaign is organized by the 2nd Battalion 24th Marines, along with the Milwaukee and Waukesha Salvation Armies, helping thousands of children in the Milwaukee/Waukesha area to receive toys for Christmas.

The primary goal of 'Toys for Tots' is to deliver a new toy at Christmas, as a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will help assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens. Their objective is to play an active role in the development of one of our nation's most valuable resources - our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause during the annual toy collection and distribution campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the future.

Corporate Central staff pulled together and placed numerous children's gifts under our lobby Christmas tree!

 

From left to right: John Hickey, Kyle Gutierrez, Antone Stewart

Each staff member was asked to bring in a baby picture of themselves and also create a hand turkey. The baby faces were attached to the turkeys and then all staff participated in a guess who's who game. Check out John, Kyle, and Antone creating their turkeys!

In honor of Veterans Day, Corporate Central also partnered with an event called Christmas with the Vets. A Vietnam veteran by the name of Jeff (Doc) Dentice started this event back in 1988 in order to help bring Christmas to Milwaukee area veterans, some of which are homeless. Jeff was a medic in the war which is where he got the nickname of Doc. When he first started Christmas with the Vets it was a very small gathering and has grown each year after. Doc relies solely on the donations of others to collect items to distribute at their annual event. This year Corporate Central helped them with their donations by collecting contributions throughout the month of November.

 

Corporate Central staff participated in a Corporate pumpkin decorating activity to spruce up the office with a little October flair. See some of our creations above!

We also held a book drive throughout the month of October to help fill the bookshelves for the Next Door Books for Kids program. The Next Door's Books for Kids program was established in 1990 with the hope that all children in Milwaukee's central city, regardless of family income or education levels, could have books to call their own.

 

From left to right: Terri Drobka, Shannon Cate, Stephanie Schmidt, and Sandra Garcia-Alvarez

Corporate Central staff celebrated the kickoff of the football season by hosting a tailgate party on Friday, September 9 for all employees.  Staff were encouraged to wear their favorite teams' shirts or colors and participate in some fun games and activities.  During the party, staff also collected non-perishable food items in coolers that were later donated to the New Berlin Food Pantry.