For Susan Sullivan, a payments analyst in corporate fuel supply, volunteerism is a way of life.
Sullivan was at DTE Energy when the ‘Care Force’ program started. This initiative empowers employees to give back in their local communities through volunteerism activities and charitable giving. She knew right away that she wanted to dive in with the enterprise’s new volunteerism effort and dive in she did. She became the volunteerism ambassador for her business unit at the time, coordinating quarterly events like trash pick ups around Belle Isle in kayaks.
“It was super successful,” Sullivan said. “It’s a way to have fun with the team, to get outside and get out of the office and do something good for Detroit. That’s how it all started.”
She carried this passion with her when she joined her current business unit in 2021, immediately signing up for the volunteer committee and, the next year, taking over as the chair of the committee.
As chair, she organizes volunteer events large and small, from building Easter baskets for children in need to coordinating volunteer days at local charities to even starting an annual outing that brings the team together at the Lions Bear Lake Camp in Lapeer to help the community in a unique way. For the last three years, every June, her team heads out to the camp to get the grounds ready for campers to spend the summer.
“I like working there, there are a variety of tasks to do,” Sullivan said. “We’re not all doing the same thing and we get to work in small groups together. Timing wise, it’s perfect. It’s right before the camp is about to open and they have a lot of loose ends they need to take care of.”
The camp is a special one, serving children with disabilities, and it’s a cause that members of Sullivan’s business unit are passionate about supporting. Every year, more than a dozen employees make the journey to the camp to get everything ready for the kids, while giving the team a chance to work together outside the office.
It’s a passion that carries over to other events that Susan coordinates, like a day of volunteering out at The Farm at Trinity Health in Ypsilanti this August as part of DTE’s Month of Caring.
“The work that Susan does is really great, it brings the team together,” Erik Hansor, Sullivan’s manager, said. “It gets us together outside of work and what we do day to day, it helps build relationships and it’s good for people to give back to causes that help others.”
For Sullivan, getting out into the community and giving back is even more important because it’s part of her role at DTE.
“For a company like ours – a big corporation – it is important that we’re in the community doing something good,” she said. “We have a program here in our corporation that supports that, we make it easy to get involved and that’s important. Electricity is crucial to how we live, and we need to support the people who live in the community in other ways, too.”
While it does take work for Sullivan to plan these outings and events, it’s work that she thrives on and work that she plans to continue for as long as she’s at DTE.
“I find it very rewarding, it fills my cup,” she said. “I’m able bodied and I work for a fantastic corporation that supports volunteerism. It’s important to give back because I can.”