EDI Culture

Our Food Fight is an annual Holiday season event, where EDI staff are broken into two teams to help raise money for the Hunger Task Force of Milwaukee. We celebrated our 26^th anniversary of this event in 2019 and raised an all-time record of $33,047. Over the last 26 years, EDI has raised a total of $311,107 and 22,229 lbs. of food for this great cause! Some of the events include:

• Bags Tournament
• Candy Grams
• Kick-off Breakfast
• Photo Booth
• Raffle
• Silent Auction
• Snack Shop
• Trivia
• Ugly Sweater Pass-around

The State of EDI meeting is our annual conference where we celebrate and recognize many of our accomplishments throughout the past year. The Partners and committees recap highlights and progress from the year and discuss future plans for the next year.

Whether you’re an experienced runner or more of a leisurely walker, this event offers an opportunity to experience the thrill of charging through the lamp lit streets of downtown with your co-workers among thousands of people.

Through our partnership with the East Town Association, EDI employees get to participate for free and receive a uniquely designed Team EDI Storm the Bastille t-shirt!

On Friday, staff enjoy the afternoon off at EDI’s summer picnic event. It’s a chance to socialize with your co-workers while partaking in all of the great food options offered at the Bastille Days festival.

Staff enjoy taking advantage of this fun festival that happens right outside of our office!

View our Facebook page for all our photos from previous years.

We have some real pet lovers here at EDI who also enjoy a little friendly head-to-whiskered-head competition! However, whiskers are not formally required. We accept all forms of pets including frogs, goldfish, guinea pigs and of course your more traditional pets, cats and dogs.

The competition can get fierce but ultimately the funds benefit a great cause, the Wisconsin Humane Society (WHS). In addition to the competition, we also run a supply drive to help WHS obtain some much needed pet supplies.

Staff enjoy being able to promote their furry and sometimes slimy family members, while supporting WHS in helping save the lives of animals.

EDI is proud to support the Holiday Giving Tree program, which in 2018 became managed by the United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County (formerly a program led by the Nonprofit Center of Milwaukee). This program matches nonprofit agencies in need with local groups to purchase gifts during the holiday season. Recipients include seniors, people with disabilities, veterans, teens and children.

EDI staff have always enjoyed participating in this annual event and having an opportunity to purchase gifts for those in need.

In November at EDI lock away your razors, clippers and buzzers to grow locks for a good cause, or just keep growin’ whatcha got! For those of you who can’t grow facial hair, we encourage you to get your creative juices flowing as you are also encouraged to create your own beard with creative materials of your choice and add-on each week to make it “grow.”

Our annual Novembeard fundraiser is a fun competition that ends with a pretty sweet trophy but most importantly, helps others. This fundraiser supports the Movembeard Foundation, a leading charity in supporting some of the biggest issues facing men’s health.

We are happy to add a little hairy fun to our chilly Novembers to support this great cause!

Our annual participation in St. John’s Cathedral Annual Christmas dinner for the homeless in our community is a great opportunity to have a hands-on experience in serving those less fortunate in our community. EDI staff that participate volunteer their time to work the Christmas party by either serving food or handing out other essential items, such as socks, undershirts, mittens and hats that are donated by EDI staff and other local companies.

This is a long-standing tradition here at EDI and a great volunteer opportunity to make a difference in our community.

EDI’s supply drives have benefited both the Boys & Girls Club of Milwaukee and our local Next Door Foundation. School supplies have helped benefit the numerous year-round programs that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee offers to youth in our area.

Our book drives have helped the Next Door Foundation’s Books for Kids program, which collect books for children in Milwaukee’s Central City.

These organizations are making great strides in bettering the lives of children and we appreciate the opportunity to pitch in.

The United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County creates real, lasting change right here in our community by investing in 220 programs at over 110 agency partner programs. Its focus is on Education, Income and Health – the building blocks for a good quality of life.

EDI runs an annual United Way campaign to provide an opportunity to help out this charitable organization either through a payroll deduction or one-time contribution. We are happy to support this cause with its ability to reach so many local organizations.

EDI regularly takes part in the Fox 6 Coats for Kids project (formerly known as Condella’s Coats for Kids). Donations of gently-used coats, new hats, mittens and scarves are collected and then donated to The Salvation Army to distribute through Milwaukee area schools.

We appreciate how much this project does to help keep our local children and teens warm in the winter!

EDI’s Social Committee plans an annual Brewers game outing for a chance to socialize with your co-workers and cheer on our home team!

Staff beat the heat at EDI’s annual Ice Cream Social to celebrate the beginning of summer! Employees are encouraged to take a mid-afternoon break and create their own ice cream sundae. Of course non-dairy options are always available.

Who doesn’t love food?! Here at EDI we really enjoy the camaraderie built while in the companionship of copious amounts of food.

Our summer potluck is an in-office spin on a summer picnic. Our committee provides our main grilling options and employees’ bring in their favorite summer picnic side or dessert to share.

Our traditional Thanksgiving potluck is a great way for employees to share one of their own traditional family recipes.

Of course non-cooking participants are always welcome to join in the eating portion of these events!

This annual event gets our client and support service teams’ creative juices flowing as teams are encouraged to compete on creating the tastiest treat, funniest or most creative décor or being crowned the overall favorite!

Of course all participants enjoy the opportunity to trick-or-treat around the office and enjoy some traditional candy or homemade treats!

View our Facebook page for all our photos from previous years.

As a method for employees to check-in on their own wellness, an opportunity for a biometric screening is provided annually to all staff. Screenings are for employee’s information only but will tell you your height, weight, BMI, waist circumference, percent of body fat, blood pressure and a finger stick blood sample will measure total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, TC/HDL ratio, triglycerides and glucose.

To promote the importance of wellness screenings, participation gets you an opportunity to be in a drawing to win gift cards!

Crop share is a service you buy into, and in return you receive fresh organic vegetables from June to November. Buying into the EDI crop share allows you to get your weekly share delivered right to your desk. How easy is that?

Looking for some motivation to stay active? Join one of our Fitness Challenges! These challenges typically run for a couple of months and staff will track their steps and active activities.

To motivate the competition, participating staff have an opportunity to win healthy-inspired prizes and gift cards.

Our health and wellness fair brings in a variety of exhibitors to focus on improving the mind, body and spirit. Exhibitors have included anything from local gyms and recreational vendors to local farms and skincare vendors.

Participating staff have an opportunity to win prizes from participating vendors.

During lunch & learns an expert in the field will share some tips and tools that you can use to ease your life. Some of the past topics have been:

• Build a salad in a jar
• Yoga and meditation for stress
• Ergonomics
• Sleeping for health

As a healthy potluck style option, staff have an opportunity to join our Wellness committee’s weekly Soup and Salad bar club, which gets you access to unlimited soup and salad along with a sweet treat every Wednesday.