Contributed by Courtney Allen, Lotsa Helping Hands Marketing Specialist
Here at Lotsa Helping Hands, we often find ourselves talking about the word “community.” Our vision is a world where everyone can give and receive help through the power of community. For us, community means so much. It’s about sharing one another’s life experiences. We too have our own community of dedicated people who spend much of their time designing and developing the best service possible, while ensuring that our free service gets into the hands of those who need it. On our Blog, we will be sharing reflections from our Team. This first one comes from Courtney Allen, our Marketing Specialist.
At Lotsa Helping Hands, we spend our days updating the technology behind the site, working with our wonderful partners, and supporting our Community Members when they have questions. But what we don’t often get to talk about in our newsletters, on Twitter and in support emails, is what it’s really like to work at Lotsa. A company with a big heart, we spend just as many lunches discussing last week’s episode of Modern Family as we do discussing caregiving.
One of the best parts about working at Lotsa Helping Hands is that everyone has at least one amazing ‘I work at Lotsa Helping Hands’ story. Often, we’re catching up with old friends, meeting someone new or simply talking about work when we explain Lotsa Helping Hands. And time and time again we hear responses like, ‘Lotsa Helping Hands? I used that when I was caring for my mom!’ or, ‘my college roommate has cancer and we are all using the site to keep updated on her status.’
Our Co-Founder, Barry Katz, told us a story one Friday about meeting with Buddhist Monks in Brooklyn who were so genuinely excited to talk with him because they use Lotsa Helping Hands to schedule meals and tasks around their community.
As one of the newest employees here, I was recently catching up with friends and family about my new job. As I was explaining Lotsa Helping Hands to my former lacrosse coach – a longtime friend and mentor – she stopped me before I could finish my explanation. She knew exactly what Lotsa Helping Hands was; she coordinates help in a community for a close friend of hers.
Everyday, whether we hear a story from someone we know personally, or are reading entries from our Story Project, our hearts go out to them. And there’s a simultaneous feeling of immense pride that we’re working on, creating, and building this service that is helping so many people on whatever path they are traveling down.
So whether you’re a lacrosse coach, Buddhist monk, or a Member of a Community some 2,000 miles from our offices, we like to think we have friends in common. We spend every day as if everyone who uses Lotsa Helping Hands is a close friend. And even if we don’t know one another, Lotsa Helping Hands will be our friend in common.