We could talk all day and night on the Aerohive blog about enterprise wireless networking and the benefits of controller-less Wi-Fi architectures … but what fun would that be? As you know, we like to mix it up around here with FUN-filled community service too. In doing so, we are helping out fellow humans and bonding as a team.
That’s right - Aerohive's Fun Committee has struck again, this time focusing our support on the Family Giving Tree’s Back to School Backpack Drive. This annual back-to-school event provides backpacks filled with school supplies to underprivileged kids. We’re helping these youngsters get off to a positive start to the school year by equipping them with such things as pencils, crayons, glue sticks, erasers, scissors, folders, binders, highlighters, calculator, rulers and, of course, backpacks … basic tools kids need for learning.
First off, we asked for cash donations from the Hive in order to buy said school supplies. We managed to collect almost $500 from the very generous Aerohive team, which ended up filling a whopping 25 backpacks!
That kind of fund-raising success is all in the finesse: It all started with Boris (from accounting) buying the first backpack that sat in his cube with a sign that said,
Feed Me! I accept cash, checks and all major credit cards (but seriously it is for a good cause.)
(We thought Boris would be the safest person for the job because, after all, he is in Accounting 
)
Then Amish (technical operations) and Jenni (public relations) teamed up to make a Target run. This shopping expedition was made easier because Target has a separate Back to School area with bins of all the goodies you need to fill these backpacks. They even have signs in their store pointing you to that specific area. That made the task at hand very easy and saved us a ton of time. Amish and Jenni went through the list of things needed and filled an entire shopping cart full of back-to-school goodies for the kiddos.
Then we got back to the office and hung out in a conference room with Boris, Linda (sales ops), Jocelyn (tech pubs) and Meredith (marketing) and got to work stuffing backpacks. The Aerohive team is never one to turn down an opportunity to eat, so of course we also stuffed our faces! We turned on Pandora, scarfed down some Togo’s sandwiches and then got to work.
It took the team about 30 minutes to fill the backpacks. Fun and laughs were had by all ... of course! 
It’s nice to leave the work place with a feel-good moment locked in your heart. A lot of people don’t get to have that kind of experience when they clock in. The money each of us donated and the time we spent is so little when you think about it, but it goes so far when we all work together as a team.
And school is a subject that is near and dear to our hearts, since so many of us have kids and Aerohive has so many customers that are K-12 schools.
What’s next on the Fun Committee docket? The Aerohive Ice Cream Social! Stay tuned for future Fun Committee updates.
