During Community Care Week, the Strauss & Troy Make a Difference Team (“MAD Team”) completed a worthwhile project in conjunction with the United Way. MAD Team volunteers prepared bags for “Every Child Succeeds” — a program that helps first-time parents create a nurturing, healthy environment for their children. Home visits, during pregnancy and through the child’s third birthday, are designed to ensure an optimal start, both physically and emotionally. Every Child Succeeds is making a tremendous impact; infant mortality rates for program participants are less than one-third of the county- wide rate.

The MAD Team also participated in several holiday projects. Its biggest project involved “adopting” 16 teen-aged girls from Holly Hill Children’s Home in California, Kentucky for Christmas. Through generous donations from Strauss & Troy employees, each girl

received a new coat, gloves, an outfit, and three personalized gifts. The Firm hosted pizza party at which the girls received their gifts. The MAD Team also collected a bin of toys for the Marines’ Toys Tots program, adopted a family through St. Aloysius Orphanage, and made monetary donation (which was doubled by an anonymous donor) to The Center for Respite Care.