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‘He Got Up’ Was a Day of Celebration and Services for the Homeless

Clean the World’s mission has always been to help the less fortunate by providing health and hygiene to those in need in our community and across the world. On Easter Sunday, we fulfilled this mission on the local level by participating in “He Got Up,” a day of celebration and services for homeless individuals, families, and others in need.

Clean the World team members staffing the shower area at He Got Up.

This event at the Orlando Citrus Bowl stadium was the first of its kind. Homeless people from three Central Florida counties received free transportation to the Citrus Bowl, where the Orlando Serve Foundation took advantage of existing local resources to help people on the path to self-sustainability. They had access to food, various types of aid, and a resource fair that connected the unemployed to job readiness training and employment opportunities.

Clean the World joined forces with Orlando Serve Foundation to provide showers for every attendee. As the sun began to rise, the Clean the World team was ready and at their stations. Portable shower trailers had arrived, equipped with warm water and changing rooms. Each guest received a towel and hygiene amenities. Bathing is a something many of us take for granted. With the lack of proper shelter, the homeless often go without basic hygiene. And with fluctuating weather conditions, it can become difficult for our neighbors in need. Florida has one of the highest homeless populations in the United States. There are 30,000 homeless and “home-insecure” people in Central Florida alone.

He Got Up was an event to inspire and serve this population. As a community, we gathered in good will to share our time and services. The event offered haircuts, clothing, meals, and consultations with doctors, dentists, and optometrists. Legal services and job placement were also available. As a volunteer at the event, I saw the good it was doing. One man leaving the shower area said, “This shower made me feel human again.”

It was beautiful to see the positivity in people who face extreme adversity on a daily basis and to connect to the fact that we must love our neighbors as ourselves. As I sat in the stadium for the He Got Up service, many came with smiles; it was an extraordinary break from the mundane of daily life. The service was a message of hope and care the fulfilled the vision of organizer Tim Johnson. He is the senior pastor at Orlando World Outreach Center and a former defensive lineman in the National Football League, playing for Penn State, the Pittsburg Steelers and the Washington Redskins. Through Pastor Tim’s concept, Clean the World’s mission, and the community coming together, we were able to serve the less fortunate in a meaningful way by providing health, hygiene and confidence to all who visited.

Ball State Students Party Clean-the-World Style During Spring Break

The week of March 7 marked the official beginning of spring break for college students all over the nation, including those who attend Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. In celebration of their spring break, 27 students from the Big Four on-campus student organization traveled to Orlando for some fun at a different type of tourist attraction: Clean the World’s Recycling Operations Center. The Big Four is a student organization that comprises members of four multicultural groups: Asian American Student Association, Latino Student Union, Black Student Association, and Spectrum, an LGBT student association.

As a part of their service project, the four organizations took over our Pittman Street warehouse and sorted bottled hygiene amenities for Clean the World Hygiene Kits. For five consecutive days, the students gave their time to volunteer and understand the importance of hygiene and global health.

Sidney Rice, a graduate student at Ball State and member of the Big Four student organization, planned the service trip. Sidney described a meeting her group held every evening after volunteering at Clean the World. The students referred to these meetings as “reflections,” and they revolved around the takeaways individuals had from their volunteer experience that day. Taking soap and hygiene products for granted was a common theme.

Sidney never realized the severity of hygiene as a global issue until learning about Clean the World. Like many people, she recognized the lack of water and sanitation in developing countries as an issue, but overlooked hygiene as a vital puzzle piece to global health.

Students Ani Thomas and Ishmeal Allensworth also shared their reflections on the volunteer spring break trip.

“You just throw away the bottles of soap after using them once or twice,” said Ishmeal describing the average life of a bottled amenity in the hospitality industry. As he reflected on his experiences at Clean the World, he realized more than ever how “the little things count for people in other countries.”

Sidney, Ani and Ishmeal all spoke of their experiences at Clean the World as an “overall positive experience.” Back in Muncie, unique volunteer opportunities are more difficult to find. The students had worked with local food banks and shelters closer to campus, but said the different atmosphere at Clean the World made for an altogether unique and memorable spring break trip.

While sorting soap, Ishmeal made friends with Tiffany, a Clean the World volunteer from Florida. Tiffany and Ishmeal have remained friends since the Ball State volunteer trip and stay in contact outside of their shared experience.

Ani, a nursing major at Ball State, was moved by her experience and eager to spread awareness about Clean the World’s life-saving mission among her peers and local hotels.

“I didn’t realize how many hotels were involved in this Clean the World organization, and that’s inspiring,” Ani said. “From this point forward, I want to go to hotels and ask them ‘Do you know about Clean the World? Are you involved in this?’ You know, just be an advocate for this organization because it is doing such an amazing thing for people across the country and in third-world countries.”

The Ball State group played trivia games, participated in a lip-sync battle, danced, listened to music, and made new friends all while supporting the Global Hygiene Revolution.

Ani hopes this experience will continue to bring the Big Four groups closer, help them get to know each other better, and offer each group the understanding of a different community within the Ball State Campus.

“I hope we can all become allies for each other,” she said.

Hilton Sets the Bar for CSR in the Hospitality Industry

With more than 4,600 properties and 758,000 rooms, Hilton Worldwide sets a shining example of corporate social responsibility at a high volume in the hospitality industry.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an increasingly important characteristic of corporations all over the world. CSR is the way in which companies recognize their social and environmental impact, and develop initiatives that benefit society. At Hilton, efficiency and sustainability are significant parts of the business model. The company continually works to make improvements and gain knowledge from other corporations with successful CSR reputations.

Simple Upgrades = Big Impact

“Intrapreneurs” are Hilton employees who help find creative solutions to challenges in their communities. Recently, Hilton intrapreneurs teamed up with Whole Foods and swapped energy management teams to achieve a fresh perspective on how to better conserve natural resources. Hilton identified a need for hotel room upgrades such as energy-efficient LED lights, door gasket replacements, and a plan to phase out inefficient room appliances. In the hospitality industry, the second or third largest cost for the average hotel is energy. In making these simple upgrades, Hilton maximizes environmental and financial efficiency.

Partnership with Clean the World is another way Hilton places emphasis on social responsibility. Clean the World has more Hilton affiliates than any other hospitality flag. Through that partnership, a substantial number of Hilton’s 140 million annual guests, take part in our sustainable mission to repurpose the soap and hygiene amenities recycled after each stay. Clean the World has recycled and distributed over 31 million bars of soap with a great amount of support and contribution from Hilton Worldwide its intrapreneurial staff.

The entire guest stay has become more sustainable from the start with the room upgrades, to the end with after-stay amenity collection, diverting waste from landfills. These diverted materials get a second life as new bars of soap for people struggling with hygiene-related illness in developing regions around the globe, and to the homeless and other at-risk groups in North America and Europe.

Travel With Purpose

Travelers are catching onto businesses that maintain sustainable methods in their corporate structure. Travel with Purpose is a Hilton Worldwide campaign designed to assure hotel guests that they are supporting an all-around sustainable brand. Through this campaign, Hilton has set three main goals. The first goal was opportunity, which the company offers by investing in youth opportunities. Hilton has since reached over 400,000 young people through internship programs, career engagement, and life-skills training.

Travel with Purpose also set community and environmental goals. In October of 2015, Hilton employees contributed 213,000 volunteer hours in 4,145 different volunteer project for their Month of Service. Their environmental goals led to reductions in energy by 14.5 percent, carbon output by 20.9 percent, waste output by 27.6 percent, and water use by 14.1 percent partly through the Clean the World program.

In celebration of Global Handwashing Day on Oct. 15, 2015, Hilton Paris Opera became the first Clean the World hotel partner in continental Europe. Discarded soap and bottled amenities from Hilton Paris Opera will be recycled to benefit European citizens who are at risk for hygiene-related illnesses.

Hilton is the first hospitality company to achieve the U.S. Department of Energy’s Superior Energy Performance Certification. Its commitment to CSR makes Hilton Worldwide a recognized leader throughout the hospitality industry.

As Hilton grows in its CSR goals, the rest of the hospitality industry begins to follow. When a prestigious brand such as Hilton sets the bar high, other brands have to make changes to keep up. And that’s how the hospitality industry transforms into a more sustainable industry for travel and leisure.

Partner Profile: JHM Hotels

Clean the World is proud to have JHM Hotels join us on the forefront of corporate social responsibility and sustainability. As a company, JHM Hotels is eager to impact communities both near and far with its time, talents and resources. JHM has a mission to be a responsible steward of corporate resources, thereby directly impacting communities through philanthropic and volunteer endeavors, which the company accomplishes through the Clean the World recycling program.

With after-stay amenity collection, thousands of pounds of waste are diverted from local landfills. These products are recycled and distributed worldwide to those who are affected by hygiene-related illness, fulfilling JHM’s core company values of community outreach, nurturing and encouraging in a tangible way.

JHM’s motto is “Keeping Our Promises.” The company is doing just that by supporting poverty relief and environmental stewardship through its partnership with Clean the World.

Univision News Airs Special Series on Clean the World

In February, Univision TV affiliates in Orlando and Tampa ran a two-part feature report on Clean the World during the “Noticias Univision Florida Central” newscast. After airing first in Central Florida, the series was released to other Univision affiliates around the country. Anchor / Reporter Samuel Rivera did a great job telling our story, and he plans to submit the piece for an Emmy Award.

Honeywell Employees Assemble 2,000 Hygiene Kits for Homeless Kids

Honeywell employees at a recent conference in Scottsdale, Arizona took a CSR break and assembled 2,000 hygiene kits for homeless kids in the Phoenix area. The kits went to the Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development, which helps young people between the ages of 12 and 25 who are homeless or escaping from abusive situations.

Tumbleweed chief communications officer Ken Lynch spoke to the Honeywell team. In his moving talk, Ken described how the youth arrive on site desperate for a meal and a chance to shower and get clean. Only then do they begin feel relaxed, safe, and cared for.

Big thanks to the folks at Honeywell for supporting a great organization. If you want to schedule a similar event for your next company meeting or conference, please fill out this brief form and a Clean the World representative will contact you with more information.