Thanksgiving: A Special Opportunity For Businesses To Show Appreciation

CEO of Botanical PaperWorks, Heidi Reimer-Epp reflects on Thanksgiving traditions and how the holiday is a great time of year for businesses to show their appreciation to employees, clients, customers, and vendors.

Growing up on Turnbull Drive in Winnipeg, my family’s Thanksgiving tradition involved/amounted to one noisy family, a pack of friends, tons of food, and a scavenger hunt. Yes, you read that right, a scavenger hunt. Thanksgiving wasn’t Thanksgiving with our annual scavenger hunt.

We lived on the outskirts of the city in a semi-rural area with a gravel road and lots of room to roam. And after eating a body-numbing amount of turkey and pumpkin pie, what was better than getting outside for a bit to run it off? So the Thanksgiving scavenger hunt was born.

We were competitive. Because who doesn’t like to win!

The scavenger hunt got us fresh air, yes, but it also created so many laughs and incredible camaraderie amongst everyone at the event. Some of my favorite childhood memories come from those scavenger hunts. It’s a wonderful time of year to be filled with gratitude for our friends and families.

But what about being thankful for employees, clients, customers, and vendors?

Employees, clients, customers and vendors are individuals in our business and work lives for whom we are thankful. Many companies express their thanks in December, a natural time to express appreciation and send tokens of thanks. But consider this, Thanksgiving in October (Canadian) and November (American) is an opportunity to say thanks during a special time of year that is a little more unexpected in the business world.

There’s a lot of disruption, fear, and uncertainty in the world right now and I think more than ever, we want to be people of action and also people of hope. I’m not saying ignore what’s happening to our beautiful planet. I’m saying that there’s also a place for feelings of appreciation and thankfulness, togetherness and community.

Speaking of community, in the working world, our community is our workplace. Couldn’t our workplace use an emotional boost these days? Author Gladys Bronwyn Stern said “Silent gratitude isn’t much use to anyone” and isn’t that the truth. We need to speak up and tell people how thankful we are for them!

So let’s be sharers of gratitude and thankfulness this Thanksgiving!

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly way to say thank you, check out these zero-waste Plantable Thank You Cards for businesses. They double as a gift of plants and give back to the planet by providing habitat for pollinators. You can even add your logo inside and update the colors to match your branding with select designs. They’re perfect to use throughout the year as a way to say thanks in those moments when you need a little something special to show your appreciation.

In closing, I just want to leave you with a quote I love from Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

“In ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”

May your day be filled with thankfulness and gratitude for all that you are about to receive.

– Heidi

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