Climbing The Corporate Stairwell: A Cause Worth Stepping-Up For
Ready to sweat a little
Last Thursday our small but mighty Women’s Advancement Compact team joined hundreds of other courageous people to scale a NYC skyscraper from the inside, Story by Story, and in the process raised big bucks for the important not-for-profit InMotion. Now, I’ve climbed some stair in my day (as long as I have 2 functioning legs, I have little use for elevators), but never as part of an organized event, or without a business appointment at the other end.
During the climb itself, there were volunteers cheering on everyone in the stair landings, some handing out water, others throwing high-fives. The final two floors were even lined with actual cheerleaders in uniform! This being said, I still haven’t described the transcendent part of my Thursday.
A Small World After All
The view from 44 stories above Manhattan may offer that broad perspective about the business world I enjoy analogizing about, but as I approached that last staircase toward victory, I reflected upon how much the world had shrunk for this corporate newbie during the 20-minute climb. Immersed in an ascending sea of over 1,000 laced-up New Yorkers, I met/ran-into the following:
- Elizabeth Gonzalez-Sussman from Olshan Frome, a woman of good humor whom I was scheduled to meet for the first time over lunch a day earlier, but had postponed with.
- Chris Scudero from Marcum, who introduced me to InMotion and who has parents living 2 blocks from where Michael & I are moving to next month.
- Adi from Scadden, who was familiar with my brother’s neighbor.
Could this be the new face of business networking? I’ll just call it ‘rising to the top, the old-fashioned way’. The corporate bonding at all levels (pun intended, of course) was infectious, and was perhaps the greatest of the unintended results of the day’s climb. Director of Individual Giving at InMotion Shireen Idroos, whose smiling face I caught a few times that day, now has something amazing to be smiling about; Kudos on a job SO well-done!
Some Thank-You’s Are In Order
To HaloCardTM: Our gratefulness goes out to you for sponsoring each climber from the Women’s Advancement Compact team. HaloCardTM is one of WAC’s partners.
To Maurice Launders: Thank you for facilitating a last-minute donation from me. The funds did come through on our team page (WAC’s efforts raised $1,500 from the stair climb!).
To the adorable tee shirt volunteer: Thanks for showing interest, and for starting to sport a WAC tee shirt!
WAC Dream Team