Volunteers with HSA Commercial Real Estate’s HSAwareness team joined forces with the firm’s longtime charity partner, Chicago Commons, to prepare and deliver holiday gifts for local low-income families. A team of volunteers led by SVP Josephine Thomas-Hoytt (center row, fourth from left) asked participants to either sponsor a family by purchasing gifts independently or providing monetary contributions for HSA volunteers to do the shopping.

With considerable donations from both inside and outside the company, the HSAwareness team carefully chose items for each individual, including onesies, musical toys and stuffed animals for the babies, and sweaters, board games and activity books for older children. Each family also received a box of microwave popcorn and a copy of Pixar’s Inside Out for a family movie night.

The team wound up packaging holiday gift bags for 10 families to be distributed throughout Chicago Commons’ four child development centers: Taylor Center for New Experiences, Nia Family Center, Guadalupano Family Center and Paulo Freire Family Center. These facilities serve to improve the math, language, and emotional and cognitive skills of over 800 at-risk children in the Chicago area. HSAwareness has previously worked with Chicago Commons on multiple facility renovation projects, including freshening the playground at Paulo Freire Family Center in July. HSA Commercial CEO Bob Smietana is a longtime governing board member at Chicago Commons.