Meet Tulio Peña, President of Peña Properties and team leader of The Peña Team, from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Meet Tulio Peña, President of Peña Properties and team leader of The Peña Team, from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

When COVID-19 hit, The Peña Team started hosting virtual client appreciation events—movie nights, painting date nights, cooking classes and the like to stay in touch with their client base.  Over time they took it to the next level by adding a philanthropy tie in with each event. 

For the past year, they’ve hosted in-person donation-themed events like pizza parties, ice cream socials, chili cook offs and fall festivals at local venues like restaurants and ice cream parlors. Everyone brings something to donate to the Warrior’s Warehouse at Fort Carson. By providing clients with a fun and easy way to support the community, they were able to provide 96 new or gently worn winter coats to military families in one night. 

“With the cost of groceries increasing every day, junior enlisted soldiers are really struggling to put enough food on the table for their families,” Tulio explained. “We held two food drives last year and each time our clients packed a pretty big F150 truck with food cans and boxes of dry food in a few short hours. Coming together like this makes our community stronger and provides opportunities for families to teach their children about the importance of sharing. People really enjoyed doing that.”

For Tulio, it’s about doing good for a local organization in need and about giving clients an opportunity to participate. Oftentimes, people want to help but don’t have the financial means or time available to have a big impact. You can make it easier for them to participate by setting up a fun event that’s free to attend and where they can quickly drop off a donation. The charity with whom you partner can give you advice on what their community needs, like canned food, coats, a bag of dog or cat food, water, etc. “It’s a nice thing to be able to include your people and your clients when you’re doing good,” Tulio said.