Fidelity team cultivates partnership with Boys & Girls Club of Manchester
There’s nothing tougher than mulching in the rain. A team of volunteers from Fidelity Investments may have picked the wrong day to tackle a landscaping project at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester on a cloudy day in May, but the pouring rain made the job get done faster.
About 25 Fidelity employees moved about 35 yards of mulch to get the clubhouse grounds on Union Street ready for spring. They planned to work into the early afternoon but were finished before lunch.
“We’re just a group of people who are used to working together and efficiently,” said Deb DiMarzio, head of FILI operations management and business preparation at Fidelity Investments.
Based at the company’s Merrimack campus, DiMarzio oversees a team focused on annuities and other financial products sold by Fidelity Investments Life Insurance Company.
Sade Rae Coleman, Nicole Garay Diaz and Erin McMahon of Fidelity Investments work on a landscaping project at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester in May.
Fidelity volunteers have been regularly involved with the Boys & Girls Club since 2016, she said.
“We have a group of people who love being involved in the community,” DiMarzio said. “We felt like we had a connection with the club and decided to work with (Fidelity’s) community relations department to see if we could make this official.”
On average, the team works with clubs on four to six projects a year, including raising money from employees at Fidelity’s Merrimack and Utah campuses to help club members with school supplies, culminating in a bus trip to shop with club members at a local Target.
Last year, the group focused on the club’s teen members, giving 16 teens $200 Visa gift cards to shop at Merrimack Premium Outlets, a shopping center across from Fidelity’s New Hampshire campus, where the company employs about 7,000 people.
“The whole time, they were like, ‘Oh, someone cares about me and did this for me,’ and it felt like their life had changed,” said Hasira Rodriguez, development director for the Boys & Girls Clubs.
Spending time with Fidelity volunteers also gives club members a chance to learn about future careers.
“I think everything we’ve done over the last few years has really been mission-centered and focused on making a big impact on kids,” said Rodriguez, who grew up on Manchester’s west side and was a club member as a youth.
Club members were able to stay warm during the recent winter thanks to Fidelity’s winter clothing purchase campaign.
“Coats, boots, mittens, gloves, tons of stuff, it seemed like everything was just arriving from Amazon,” Rodriguez said. “Our family resource room had all the essentials for the kids. Parents and kids didn’t have to worry if they forgot a jacket or it was too cold and they didn’t have a hat. The team was there to help, which was great.”
Jennifer Allard, Christopher Forbes, Shawn Dupont, Mark Walsh and Jessica Zucchi of Fidelity Investments worked on a mulching project at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester in May.
Doro Koita returned to top off mulch during a landscaping project at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester in May.
Sheila Vargas, Fidelity’s community relations manager, serves as a liaison between the company and nonprofits.
“One of the things I’ve noticed besides the efficiency of our employees is how passionate they are about giving back to the community,” says Vargas, who recently joined Fidelity after working at the Nature Conservancy. “So that makes my job easier, right? And in some ways it makes it harder.”
FILA Group stands out for its dedication. “We have a lot of employee groups and business units that really want to give back as a team,” she says. “We also have employees who want to volunteer as individuals throughout the year.”
The landscaping event was something of a homecoming for Doro Koita, who recently joined Fidelity as a business specialist, who spent much of his teenage years at the club, playing basketball, doing his homework and, later, volunteering.
“I came out here today and laid down mulch and did all that stuff. It was really cool to do it with all my teammates,” he said. “Everybody’s cheering for me. We’re all working together, so it’s been a lot of fun.”
