Beyond Audit and Tax – CPA Day of Service
By Nathaniel Jordan, CPA
Friday, September 21 started like most days do for me: a chaotic race to help my wife get our three young children ready for the day while we did the same for ourselves. That’s where the typical routine stopped. That day, getting myself ready was a breeze. The ensemble included a T-shirt, basketball shorts and tennis shoes. Sure, Fridays at BRC are relatively informal, but not that informal.
In what was a total change of pace from a standard work day in an office environment, I made my way to Friendly Avenue Baptist Church to meet up with a group of coworkers. We, along with our colleagues and other CPAs participating at a variety of organizations all over North Carolina, were volunteering as a part of the CPA Day of Service, an annual event started by the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants several years ago as a way for CPAs to stay connected with and give back to the communities in which they live and work.
Our group helped with outdoor work for the church’s preschool by trimming shrubs, weeding play areas and gardens, and spreading mulch. It was awesome to see teamwork from all levels of seniority within the Firm in a nontraditional setting. Shoveling mulch side by side with BRC’s managing partner was a reminder to me that our Firm’s values, including being involved in our communities and seeking to support and improve those areas, are not just abstract ideas mentioned by management, but tenets to live by at every stage of our careers.
Other groups from BRC volunteered at Ronald McDonald House, SECU Family House, Guilford County Animal Shelter, Greyhound Friends of North Carolina, the Teacher Supply Warehouse, Salvation Army, Dunn United Ministerial Association Food Pantry, and Gospel Tabernacle Church in Dunn. One group from our Winston-Salem office helped the Forsyth Humane Society set up for the Furr Ball Fundraiser, which is the organization’s biggest fundraiser for the year. Being connected within our communities and being involved in more than accounting work gives greater meaning to what we do as a Firm, and we are proud to be able to contribute to what makes these areas great places to live and work.