For the past several years, Tupperware’s IT department has done something special during the holiday season for families in need in the Orlando community. But this past year, they wanted to do something different. They came up with some great ideas to generate donations of clothing, food, toys, and money. But, Rosemary Knoll, IT, Team Leader, kept coming back to a question. What could we do that gives more of ourselves?
 
Rosemary loves to quilt, and one day when she was at home making the bed and folding the t-shirt quilt she made for her husband, the idea came for her. “For every event at Tupperware, we get these neat decorated t-shirts. What could be better than to get everyone in the department to donate a Tupperware t-shirt that would become part of a quilt we made together?”
 
Rosemary started by sending out an email to her IT colleagues asking for their help with a project. She piqued their curiosity by asking them to bring in any Tupperware t-shirts they didn’t want back.
 
She received more than enough t-shirts to create two quilts. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Rosemary spent over 40 hours cutting the designs from the t-shirts and assembling the pieces. Two things inspired her design concepts. She backed both quilts with green fabrics in recognition of Tupperware’s 2009 going green initiatives. And, she used black in the quilt for the stabilizing outlines because of Tupperware CEO Rick Goings. “He wears a lot of black, so the stabilizing black in the quilt is in honor of him as the stabilizer of this company.”
 
Rosemary continued to send emails to her co-workers, filled with intriguing messages that explained she was still working on it and she would need their help one day soon. Finally, she sent the email saying it’s time for you to see your t-shirts. Rosemary laid the quilts out on the conference table and people started coming into the room. She then explained how everyone could help her stitch the quilts together.
 
“Whether they donated t-shirts or took a turn to stitch, they gave of themselves,” said Rosemary. “I envisioned something where everyone would want to invest their time and give of themselves. Once people got involved, the project just blossomed.”
 
She was touched by the people who would spend an hour or two in the room tying the quilt, touching it, and telling stories. They would locate their piece of t-shirt and recall the memories that accompanied each event.
 
“Sometimes, it was only the guys together in there, quietly stitching, talking about when their grandmother did this, or their mothers did,”  said Rosemary. “It was really neat to hear them.”
 
Originally, they planned to donate the two quilts to a homeless shelter. But the group felt they could use the quilts to accomplish even more and decided to sell raffles tickets for one and auction the other. 
 
They sold $120 in raffle tickets and the winner was a director in Customer Care. It now hangs on the wall in that area. Rick Goings was high bidder in the auction, paying $1,000 for the second quilt.
 
With these funds, the IT department was able to go out and buy all the clothes, food, and toys for the families they had already adopted for the holidays, and they were able to do the same for additional families.
 
“People were so excited about those quilts,” said Rosemary. “When you give of your time to make someone’s life warmer or better, you get a good feeling in your heart.”