Shirley Latinecz: Giving Back in Every Way She Can
Volunteering has always been a big part of The Answer Company’s culture, but in 2015 we launched a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program, officially embedding volunteering into the foundation of the company. In our CSR program, called Answering the Call, our focus is to give back to our communities and every quarter we participate in a company-wise volunteer day so we can all come together and give back as a team. Shirley Latinecz, Project Accountant with The Answer Company, has continuously stood out with her dedication to volunteer work, both through our Answering the Call program and on her own.
Taking every opportunity to give back to the community
There isn’t enough we could say about Shirley. She’s a wonderful woman, with a heart of gold and while we know she goes above & beyond to help everyone at The Answer Company every day, we had no idea just how much she was actually doing outside of the company too. Over the years Shirley has done a wide range of volunteering, including feeding people requiring assistance at a Seniors Lodge, contributing to renovations of an old apartment building a church purchased to give people in need a second chance, packaging food at Winnipeg Harvest Food Bank and cooking & serving meals at Siloam Mission, an organization that provides meals, clothing and services for Winnipeg’s poor & homeless community.
Shirley is also known for regularly helping people in her community as much as she can, and wherever they need it – whether it’s building a fence, assisting with household cleaning/chores, helping people with physical disabilities, driving elderly to where they need to go or hosting international students. Additionally, for around 6 years Shirley helped run a program that assisted teen moms, through which she met a young mother who needed a bit of extra help. For 8 years, from the time that the young mother’s daughter was 2 until 10, Shirley looked after the little girl every other weekend to help give the young mom some extra support and time to herself.
When asked about volunteering Shirley explained, “Volunteering is hard at times and making time for others takes concerted effort amongst busy schedules and finding life balance. In my opinion and experience, not only is helping others ‘the right thing to do’, it helps shape one’s own character. We become kinder, more thoughtful human beings and that kindness can make all the difference in someone else’s life….even if only for a moment. I know how much I have appreciated help in my times of need.”
In the past few years Shirley’s focus has shifted more to her family. She has stepped into a caretaking role for her 49 year old handicapped brother-in-law, because with age, her in-laws have required more assistance taking care of their son.
Valued member of the team
Even though Shirley already dedicates so much time to helping her family and those around her, she has still shown leading dedication in The Answer Company’s company-wide volunteer days. She’s consistently the first person to raise her hand to organize and lead a volunteer day. Specifically, she organized the participation of our Winnipeg office in a fundraising event called ‘Drop Zone’ in which people repelled down buildings in order to raise funds for various causes.
As described by Shawn Ostheimer, President of The Answer Company, ‘Shirley always brings a bright and cheery “can-do” attitude to the table and demonstrates a noteworthy level of reliability that is critical to our team being able to thrive. Thank you Shirley for being great!’
We become kinder, more thoughtful human beings when we help others, and that kindness can make all the difference in someone else’s life. – Shirley