For Suburban Propane’s Marketing Analytics Manager, Abdul Koroma, philanthropy is more than just a word you see when visiting the Three Pillars section of SuburbanPropane.com
It’s something that embodies his everyday life. Approximately 15 years ago, Abdul and his friends were volunteering and discussing other volunteer opportunities they were interested in. Based on those discussions, they decided to form their own organization.
In 2009, they founded a community-based organization, New York State of Mind (NYSOM). NYSOM is a 501c3 organization, which runs community projects throughout the year in the following three categories: Monthly Projects, Community Events, and Fundraising.
NYSOM’s Initiatives Include:
–Monthly Projects: NYSOM compiles hygiene kits and distributes them to the homeless communities most in need on a monthly basis.
–Community Events: Park Clean Ups: NYSOM hosts community events such as park clean ups throughout the year. These are suited to larger volunteer groups and families. They rent inflatables, bounce house, obstacle course, and invite other organizations to partner with them.
–Fundraisers: NYSOM’s host three fundraisers throughout the year to be able to fun their projects.
- Back to school fund raiser to collect money for books bags and items to fund their back-to-school event, in which they give away up to four book bags filled with supplies to each family.
- Thanksgiving Food Drive
- Holiday Food Drive Pandemic
–Community Engagement: During the pandemic, NYSOM hosted virtual story time for the children in underprivileged communities. Once a month, a volunteer dressed up as Winnie the Pooh, and read to the children to continue the ongoing dialogue and interaction with the Community.