'Tis the season for giving — but the giving started seven months ago for our
RNnetwork office in Boca Raton, Fla.
One of their teammates, Lisley Elmore, an associate recruiter team lead, had a birthday and a wedding coming up. While those are usually joyful times, Lisley's leader, Chuck Klee, a senior recruiter, couldn't help but notice her sadness. "I asked her what was wrong," Chuck says. "She tried to shrug it off and say she was fine — but I could see in her eyes that she wasn't."
Lisley, an immigrant from the Philippines, missed her family terribly. She hadn't seen many of them in three years, after her mom's passing, and none of them had met her future husband. She had an aging grandmother and a 7-year-old niece, Vennie, who had recently been diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer. While Lisley loved her job and her life here in the states, it was tough to be so far away from her family.
Chuck got an idea: "Maybe, just maybe, if we take up little donations around the office, we can raise enough to buy her a plane ticket to visit her family."
The response was overwhelming. Within a week, they hit their budget, raising enough to send Lisley and her new husband to the Philippines. She booked the trip over our Thanksgiving holiday.
More than money
While the airline tickets home were an incredible gesture, her team gave much more than that.
Vennie's favorite Disney princess is Sophia the First, so Lisley's colleagues bought lots of toys, a princess dress and Sophia dolls to raise her niece's spirits. "She was in so much pain and was crying, but all the gifts brought her so much joy and put a smile on her face," Lisley says.
"It's really beyond words," Lisley shares. "I am so grateful that I was able to spend time with my family back in the Philippines — and that I was able to take with me all the love, care, support, comfort and prayers for Vennie."
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