Company Raffle Sends Employees to Amazon—River, Not Website

A most unusual workplace raffle sends the winners, not to a posh resort, but to a remote part of the Amazon—and not for a vacation, but to work hard!

Crius Energy, based in Stamford, Connecticut, told the Hartford Courant that it has been committed to the Amazon Preservation Project, started by Crius’s Viridian Energy division, whose aim is to restore indigenous plants and trees to deforested areas of the Mamori region.

Crius and Viridian employees are committed to the project and have visited the area four times to work to the goal of planting 5,000 trees, so much so that the “prize” at the company holiday party was two trips to the Amazon.  Employees received raffle tickets based on their years of service. 

Megan McCoy, the company’s second longest-serving employee, was one of the winners.  She was thrilled with her win as she had not visited the area, stating that she was at the company when the project was just an idea, but was thrilled to help turn her company’s “commitment to sustainability and improving the Earth into something tangible.”

Cami Boehme, chief strategy officer for Crius, says, “We take seriously our commitment to environmental sustainability.  We are also seriously committed to finish what we started and will not stop until the goal is achieved.” Sounds like employees are just as committed to the cause.