Thomson Reuters Employees Use Paid Time-Off to Serve Communities in Need

Last week, the Star Tribune shared how the Red Cross is in need of volunteers to support communities in crisis as wildfires overwhelm the West Coast and hurricanes pound the South. Among the volunteers interviewed was Julie Buerkle, a technology delivery manager for Thomson Reuters.

Buerkle is currently in Florida using her paid vacation time to help with the Hurricane Sally cleanup. The Star Tribune explained: “Buerkle will likely spend the next two weeks sleeping in hotel rooms or on cots inside a church and then working the day alongside retirees, nurses and other volunteers. She started volunteering with the Red Cross in 2016 and usually goes on one deployment a year. In July, she flew to San Antonio to help with Hurricane Hanna damage, staffing a warehouse to distribute cleanup supplies.”

The article noted Buerkle received four paid days off to volunteer from Thomson Reuters, which she used for her Texas trip. Thomson Reuters doubled the volunteer hours for employees in 2020, following the tragic death of George Floyd, and pledged a $1 million investment to support rebuilding efforts in Minneapolis and St. Paul communities. It’s part of the ongoing Thomson Reuters community giving and employee volunteer program, which enables employees to take paid time-off each year to volunteer.

Between June and August, Thomson Reuters employees contributed more than 12,900 volunteer hours globally, including more than 6,500 hours in Minneapolis and St. Paul at organizations like the Sabathani Community Center, where employees, including CEO Steve Hasker, cleaned rooms, painted and helped reorganize and restock the food shelf in July. In August, employees partnered with law firm Fish & Richardson to provide more than 400 families with groceries and other essentials at the YWCA Minneapolis-Midtown. More recently, Thomson Reuters employees volunteered at last week’s National Voter Registration Day events and at a house build with Habitat for Humanity.