It is my favorite time of the quarter again! One of our company values is community. We believe strongly in taking the time, every quarter, to give back to a local program that is making a difference. This time around, we took all 65 of our team members from the LA office and headed out to Hope Gardens, a Los Angeles based shelter for abandoned women and children, part of the Union Rescue Mission. The Rubicon army descended on the transitional housing center, ready to be put to work! We spent the morning and early afternoon gardening, doing site maintenance and clean up, organizing donations, decorating for the holidays, and repainting. At the end of the day, we were exhausted but beaming from the good vibes we got for donating our time to such a worthwhile cause. Not only is the community service aspect of the event important, it allows us all to get out of the office (in this case, a half day) to bond around a cause that is greater than ourselves. The drive and willpower that our team members put into these events never ceases to amaze me, and the memory stays with us permanently, as do the people in need that we encounter. I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes in relation to what we did yesterday, “it is easy to make a buck. It is hard to make a difference!”