Now in its 16th year of generous, large-scale philanthropy, Vivint Gives Back's annual Sub For Santa program generously distributed six or more presents each to over 3,500 children at local schools.
Midvale, Utah, December 24 2024
Vivint Gives Back recently held their annual Sub for Santa event at East Midvale Elementary School a K-5 school within the Canyons School District. Now in their 16th year of hosting the merry initiative, which aims to give students not just the presents they want, but the presents they may need. This year, Utah Jazz players Taylor Hendricks and Cody Williams made an appearance at the event.
This year, Vivint Gives Back raised $300,000 to help provide gifts to 3,500 children. This money was raised solely by employees, as Josh Gruwell, Vivint Regional Sales Manager explained, “All the money to buy these presents are donated by employees, it’s not just corporate money. Employees have some skin in the game since they’re the ones spending the money, and also the ones buying the presents.”
To get the wishlists from the students, Vivint works with teachers within K-5 public schools to understand what the students want, as Holly Mero, Sr. Director of Strategy and Philanthropy explains, “The teachers work very closely to get the students’ exact needs and wants. That’s one of the special sauces of this program, the teachers are able to give insights into the wanting aids of the kids. Things as simple as a pillow, a blanket, or even a toothbrush.”
Mero also claims, “Employees look forward to this day as much as the kids. We start talking about this in October every year, that’s usually when people start planning.”
Vivint organizes the event, and carefully coordinates with classroom teachers who work with their students to put together lists of needs and wants. Hundreds of Vivint employees, family members, and friends then fan out and buy the presents at stores within the local economy.
Jonathan Bardalez, Vivint Sales Manager (and Sub For Santa veteran of 11 years) states how easy Vivint makes it for employees to participate, “They’ll come up to us and hand us a QR code or paper to volunteer or to donate some money. Then, I can just sign up and authorize X amount of money to be deducted from my pay in a couple of months.”
He continued, “They organize the shopping so that you’re just given a wishlist, and prepaid debit card with the money you donated. From there you just need to go to a local store and buy everything. When you get back, they have the wrapping paper, tape, the bags, everything you need to get the present ready to be gifted. Then, they’ve even set up this event where employees can come show up and actually see the students opening up the gifts.”
The volunteer turnout this year was larger than previous years, as according to Gruwell, “This is the largest turnout we’ve ever seen on delivery day. We have three rotations of classes worth of volunteers, and we’re to the point where volunteers are actually waiting to give the gifts to students. It’s really amazing to see.”
Vivint also does more than just the Sub for Santa event, as Bardalez stated, “They also organize a whole trip to go to Mexico and help build homes. One year we even went to Romania to help paint and renovate a school.”
Gruwell remembers other opportunities to volunteer through Vivint, “It was around 2015 or 2016 we would go help out with sensory rooms in the US for some elementary schools for kids with disabilities. We would renovate a classroom so they could have that environment.”
To learn more about the Vivint Gives Back organization, click here.
