VTO – Time Well Spent
December 26, 2019
As the year draws to an end, we’re taking a look at how FirstEnergy employees embraced our new VTO (Volunteer Time Off) policy. New this year, the policy allows eligible employees to participate in up to 16 hours annually at approved 501(c)3 organizations during the workday.
Here’s a sampling of our employees using their VTO to help provide food to those less fortunate.
This fun group had a great time volunteering at New Journey Community Outreach’s (NJCO) weekly food pantry, where they served 134 families. NJCO provides a daily soup kitchen, and weekly food pantry and clothing center for individuals and families in need in the Reading, Pa., community.
L.-r.: Stephanie Karish, Human Resources, representative II; Julie Kalnas, Human Resources, representative III; Angela Berkis, Customer Account specialist V; Stephanie Gentile, supervisor, Customer Contact Center; Pollyanne Bonning, Customer Account specialist V; Marnell McCarthy Customer Account specialist IV (NJCO board vice president); and Evette Little, Customer Account specialist II.
A group of FERC and State Regulatory Compliance employees sorted health and personal care items at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank for distribution across our service territory.
L.-r.: Thuong Nguyen, engineer IV; Debra Zelasko, staff compliance specialist; Carol Krysevig, manager, FERC Compliance; Ann Carey, staff compliance specialist; and Todd Genovese, staff compliance specialist.
Also volunteering at the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank:
Alicia Day, Rhiannon Stevenson and Samantha Szilagyi worked on a variety of projects including packing 200 FirstEnergy Foundation bags with beans, chickpeas and rice for a community picnic that same day. This has been a yearly tradition for the three who usually use PTO (paid time off) to volunteer at the foodbank. They said they were happy to use four hours VTO this year to continue this tradition. Rhiannon (foreground), Samantha and Alicia take time for a selfie. Alicia is a business analyst, while Rhiannon is supervisor, Sourcing and ETF, and Samantha is a senior business analyst.
FEU Meter Services Support prepared food packages, then weighed, boxed, sealed and stacked them on pallets for distribution. They helped provide 1,483 meals for people in need.
Our Akron Outage Management employees packaged 200 boxes with items such as spaghetti, cereal, peanut butter and canned fruit.