Qlarant Celebrates Good Works During Easton Office Annual Picnic
Thurs. Sept. 12, 2019, Easton, Maryland—107 Associates at Qlarant took time out on Thursday, September 12th to come together for their Annual Easton Office Picnic. Headquartered in Easton, Md., Qlarant is a solutions company that focuses on risk management, quality improvement programs, and delivering customized technical products and services to solve complex, real-world problems for their clients.
This year, they moved their annual event inside and decided to focus the event on the company’s involvement in a variety of community activities designed to benefit others. “This year we decided to link our picnic with our increasing involvement in the Talbot Goes Purple (TGP) awareness program,” said Qlarant CEO Ron Forsythe, Jr., PhD. “We tied this into our work battling the opioid crisis on a national level and decided to have a Qlarant Purple Day.” Each person received a purple t-shirt celebrating Qlarant’s theme “Choose to Make a Difference.”
Supporting the goals of TGP, 70 Qlarant employees attended training on the use of Narcan to treat an opioid overdose which was provided by Logan Harris and Beth Williams from the Talbot County Health Department. The one-hour course provided background information on the various types of opioids and related controlled substances and presented the staff with ways to recognize an overdose event. They showed the class how to administer Narcan and provided each attendee with a response kit and two doses to have in the event they needed to render assistance.
Associates also brought in donations to the Neighborhood Service Center. Each year, around the holidays, Qlarant collects food, necessities, and gifts to ease the needs of the poor—but the need doesn’t go away after the holidays. Qlarant encourages others to make sure they keep organizations like the NSC stocked with paper goods, toiletries, and other sundries.
During lunch, Qlarant welcomed Deputy Steve Elliott from the Talbot County Sheriff’s Department who provided everyone an update on the TGP efforts in Year 3. He thanked Qlarant for having approximately 40 people attend the kick-off event on September 4th and related some experiences from his most recent speaking events. Steve didn’t leave empty-handed—Qlarant packed his vehicle with purple Frisbees to give out at schools and sporting events.
The final speaker was the Habitat Build Team leader Michelle Kennedy who brought everyone up to speed on the activities of the team supporting the efforts of Habitat for Humanity Choptank. For approximately two years, Qlarant associates have worked along with Habitat staff and future homeowners to build houses near Port Street in Easton, as well as locations in Cambridge. Michelle encouraged new associates to join the team for one Saturday each month.
“This was a different approach to our annual picnic,” said Vice President of Human Resources Deb Keller. “Much of our day-to-day work is centered on improving the lives and health of people across the country. It is remarkable to see how much the people who work here are willing to give of themselves in the various charities and good works right here in our own community. We constantly see evidence of our claim to have the best people, providing the best solutions, which yield the best results.”
