Aera decorates Can-Trees to feed Kern County families
Can-Tree competition and team building raises funds for Bakersfield’s Golden Empire Gleaners
Brightly decorated trees lined the halls of Aera’s locations, but there were no pine-tree smell or holiday jingles – just over a dozen colorful trees built with thousands of cans of food for a good cause.
Aera’s Can-Tree competition raised funds and gathered canned food donations for Oil Can Do It, an annual friendly competition between local oil industry partners. Oil Can Do It helps put food on the table for Kern County families served by Bakersfield’s Golden Empire Gleaners.
Aera teams sponsored 16 trees for $300 each, built each tree with 528 cans of food, and elaborately decorated them. The can-tree competition and team building activity is new to Aera’s Oil Can Do It fundraising efforts this year.
Aera’s finance team sponsored five can-trees and saw it as a fun and rewarding activity that also supports a great cause. It was also one of the first times employees, many of whom work a hybrid schedule were able to get together in person, filling the hallways with smiles, laughter and the friendly banter of competition.
“It was a really fun competition,” said Aera financial analyst Jean Browning, whose team designed an accounting-themed tree they called the Bean Counters. “Everyone was sneaking peeks, it was really fun to come up with unique names for our trees and getting the teams involved in coming up with ideas, putting together a concept and then assembling the tree.”
The competition gathered the equivalent of 8,437 pounds of food to support the hundreds of families the Gleaners supports each month. In all, the monthlong Oil Can Do It competition raised the equivalent of 196,403 pounds of food for local families.
“It’s really fun to hear about the competitions each of the companies do to engage and get their employees excited about Oil Can Do It,” said Debbie Powers, executive director of the Golden Empire Gleaners. “It’s such a great thing to do for morale and we really appreciate the immense amount of work and creativity that our local oil companies put into this competition to support the Gleaners and families in Kern County.”
Check out Aera’s Can-Trees in the gallery below:
