Making a Difference

Tweet

Pin It

By Grant Wright, CEO

At (W)right On, there are principles by which we operate that we call our Core Values. They’re how we roll, or try our best to.

Written some years ago, they have evolved a bit, sometimes to add greater clarity and sometimes to simply articulate a new Value that through experience was realized to be there all along.

It’s # 3 – “We are inspired by our clients” - that prompted me to write this today. Well, part of its precept actually: “We choose to work with people who and organizations that are visionaries, leaders and changing the world for the better…”

This notion largely relates to another belief, that life is short and there are far more great things to do than we have time (a precept of Value # 13 – “We act with a sense of urgency.”) So at (W)right On, while remembering the bills that still need paying and all other things being equal, when we can turn our team’s capabilities toward maximum good, we should, and do.

While we have other great stories and outcomes for our visionary for-profit clients, over the years there have been numerous not-for-profit organizations we’ve been privileged to support. Currently, these include Toward Maximum Independence, The Roddenberry Foundation, New Haven Youth & Family Services and Tri-City Hospital Foundation, to name just a few.

Toward Maximum Independence is a nonprofit agency with a long standing reputation for “best practices” in providing personalized assistance to people with disabilities enabling them to live, work and participate in their communities. The positive attitude and work they and those they assist do everyday is extraordinary, and personally inspiring.

The Roddenberry Foundation, founded and chaired by Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, for its part has a vision of supporting efforts to expand new frontiers for the benefit of humanity.  Focused on the four pillars of the Environment, Science & Technology, Humanitarianism and Education, its Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Research at Gladstone Institutes was established one year ago. A couple weeks ago, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, who divides his time between Japan and the Roddenberry Center, was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his stem cell research discoveries. How cool is that? And how profoundly privileged is (W)right On to help carry on the Star Trek legacy established by Gene Roddenberry so many years ago?

New Haven Youth & Family Services is yet another organization making a difference. Established in 1967 and having helped more than 15,000 families to date, today New Haven is transforming lives for at-risk adolescent boys through an innovative education model that supports troubled youth, guiding them from despair to hope. Every young person they help not only helps them and those around them, but helps the community today and for the long term. It’s truly win-win.

Tri-City Hospital Foundation was established in 1964 with a mission of inspiring community health and wellness through support of Tri-City Medical Center. Recently I had the opportunity to trial for a few minutes Tri-City’s incredible new da Vinci Robotic Surgical System in part made possible by the Foundation. Humbling, to say the least. (No human or anything else was harmed in the process!) And while Tri-City helps thousands every year, it made a difference in the life of Caleb, and through a new law and its own ‘Code Caleb’ now other newborns that you should read about.

Each of these organizations I do injustice by mentioning them so briefly, and there are many others. I hope you’ll take a moment to check them out, and in a world all-too-focused on pop culture, or the latest talking head on what used to be legitimate news channels, think about what really matters to you.

There are many worthy organizations, and I hope we hear from you on the above or any of the other great things you know of going on around us.

And if you’re curious what the rest of WOC’s Core Values are, shoot me an email at gwright@wrightoncomm.com.