Name: Project Development Services, Inc. (PDSI)
Profession: PDSI is a privately held project management company located throughout North America specializing in managing the process of building and renovating hotels.
Association with MedShare: Our CFO, Angie Fife Engelberger, is a Member of MedShare’s Southeastern Regional Council
How did you get involved with MedShare and for how long?
Our CFO, Angie, first became aware of MedShare several years ago through a friend, Jill Paris, who is on MedShare’s Board of Trustees. When Jill shared the MedShare story with Angie, it was obvious what fueled her passion for MedShare was that is an incredibly well run non-profit that has truly made a global impact through redirecting hundreds of thousands of tons of medical supplies and equipment from landfills to needy clinics. MedShare is such an obvious win-win situation for everybody that Angie knew immediately she wanted to be involved. Her involvement has slowly evolved from being a yearly donor to helping sponsor a container, to involving her coworkers at PDSI in a company-wide service project, to becoming a member of the Southeastern Regional Council.
What inspired you to get involved with us? And to involve PDSI?
PDSI’s company values include a commitment to our community. To that end, PDSI devotes four days a year to bringing together all of our team members to work on a community service project and affect change in our communities. As our company has grown, we have found our community has grown to a global level. PDSI has employees who have family connections in areas which are recipients of MedShare shipments, such as Guam, the Dominican Republic and Kenya. Over the past year, PDSI has learned about MedShare and its mission. Teaming with MedShare was an ideal avenue for PDSI to come together from our different locations, work locally and know our work would have a global impact.
Who is PDSI and how was the project of PDSI remodeling MedShare’s break room initiated and executed?
PDSI is a Project Management organization made up of some of the finest professionals in the hospitality development business. As a company, our practices of aligning our business practices to our company values make us transparent and predictable. This simple philosophy has delivered great success in both our business and in our people. With that success comes a heightened awareness of the importance of our commitment to our communities. Who we are is also reflected in the fact that in 2009, when cost cutting options were discussed, our company voted unanimously not to cut our community service work but to freeze pay raises and to implement other cost cutting measures instead.
After hearing our CFO talk about her participation in MedShare we decided to make them the beneficiary of our spring service project. We were excited to investigate the many ways we could make a difference to MedShare and help support their success. PDSI not only participated in sorting medical supplies, we also took on the task of remodeling the break room. During one of our planning tours of MedShare’s Atlanta warehouse we noticed the break room, which was desperately in need of an upgrade, was actually a multipurpose room; employees and volunteers use the break room for meals, and the break room serves as an overflow meeting space. Knowing that MedShare funnels as much donation revenue as possible to program expenses rather than administrative expense, our team saw an opportunity, as one of our team members said, to “make their day to day a little more enjoyable and productive, as they focus on pressing issues beyond the walls of MedShare.... “
Breakroom Before Breakroom After
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Did the group enjoy this project? Is there any comment or feedback you’d like to share from the PDSI group?
Our group had a fantastic time at MedShare! Community service is a very special time for us. It allows all of our employees to come together and take on roles we do not typically assume. We have found that our commitment to the community is really a gift to ourselves. It is a teambuilding experience that has a positive, lasting impact. Some of our team member’s comments include:
“ Our previous service projects were all rewarding, but volunteering at MedShare took it to a new level because not only was our time spent improving people’s quality of life, but it was spent saving those lives from a preventable death.”
“ I was amazed by the way MedShare’s mission solves several problems at the same time which results in helping the environment by capturing medical surplus before it becomes waste, and more importantly providing necessary supplies (things we take for granted) to help save lives of the most needy people around the world. It was a pleasure to have the opportunity to help improve the working environment of the staff and volunteers.”
“It felt good to do something for an organization that doesn’t have “disposable” funds; everything they get goes to helping others. It was great to be able to give a space that isn’t second-hand, it’s first rate and they definitely deserve it!”
“Being involved with a group such as MedShare makes you realize how privileged we are to live in this country and how we take for granted a lot of things that simply are not available to the common citizen in other countries. The fact that we took one day out of our schedules to provide a better working environment for their team was an honor. In addition, our team was able to interact with team members from the other offices in an atmosphere that was not focused on the company, project white books, or project profitability. This ultimately will make us a better company.”
