We are more than honored and grateful to receive the IHG Giving for Good Award for both hotels – Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria and Holiday Inn Manila Galleria for the year 2021.
Since the founding of the program in September 2018, Giving for Good month has seen IHG colleagues provide more than 300,000 acts of kindness in our communities around the world. The impact of Covid-19 meant that we were unable to stage our traditional Giving for Good month of action during 2020, however, we did things a little differently, hosting our first-ever Giving for Good Awards, which celebrated the efforts of more than 28,000 colleagues across the globe.
Last September, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Manila Galleria celebrated the Giving for Good month along with ‘R Love’ care – coming together to make positive change to the communities around us through volunteering, taking care of the environment and making a difference to our associate’s health and wellbeing. What’s heartwarming for those who took part in these initiatives is that they willingly shared from their own pockets to fund for these good deeds and donate to other worthy causes that support charitable partnerships.
Despite the lockdown, we are firm believers that we can still continue to do great things within our organization and even branch-out to the community where we are in. The positive energy snowballed inspired our 200 colleagues who took part to spread acts of love and kindness. This is True Hospitality.
Each department organized their unique initiative funded by the employees while the hotels has their own company-initiated endeavors.
Finance Department took notice of the Little Sisters Of The Elderly In San Juan to gather resources to feed and fend for the 100 grandmothers.
For love of the environment, the Engineering Team used their gardening skills at the 5th floor garden area of the hotel. In order to start planting, they cleaned-up the area, water, put fences and plant small trees and medicinal plants. It was followed by a clean-up drive along Ortigas Avenue in collaboration with the local barangay.
Nurse Ton Delgado is a Tai-Chi advocate and practitioner. He freely shared his expertise to our colleagues and instructed a program. He informed about its benefits – it can boost our immune system and reduce anxiety, depression, and mood disturbance. This was complemented with a Yoga session, a good start for our colleagues to practice mindfulness and meditation.
RISE Alumna and Rooms Division Managers, Regina Sta. Cruz and Dennise Gallardo chose to raise awareness on building confidence and expressing oneself through #IAMRemarkable. This 90 minutes workshop got its framework from powerhouse partnerships of Google and IHG.
To recognize the front liners – Pasig Blue Boys and the Airport Front liners, the Hotel rewarded them for a day with a hotel bento meal. This is our way of saying “Thank you, for the work you do!”. The Food & Beverage Department took this to a higher notch when they pooled their own resources to provide more sets of bento meals to another group of front liners – the delivery riders from Grab, Lalamove, and Food Panda. They set up a booth outside the Hotel driveway for hungry delivery riders passing by.
Our hotel employees made a blood donation drive for the cancer patients at the Philippine Children’s Medical Center. For Childcare, Front Office gave personal contribution by donating cribs.
Biker enthusiasts from different departments fused passion and purpose as they gathered 100 food packs from their personal contributions to give-away as they bike around the city. The sight was just heartwarming as the bikers pause to hand-over food packs to the homeless, street children and poor people along the way.
The month was also our way to thank the very hardworking teams in the Housekeeping Department . We let them play, win prizes, and promote camaraderie in an activity-packed Olympics Week.
Finally, we have chosen HOPE Community Facility in Quezon City as a beneficiary of hotel linens and toiletries. HOPE cares for asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 patients in their 200-bed facility in Quezon City.
General Manager Barun Jolly said, “It is really amazing and heartwarming that about 80% of our total workforce participated in the program, supporting 5 institutions, and distributed beyond 300 food packs distributed. This filled the Hotel with so much happiness, love and hope. We believe in genuinely giving back to the community and we hope to create a lasting positive impact.