E041 - Barbara Richardson: How a single care package evolved into a Corporate initiative

Barbara Richardson’s professional title is a mouthful; Assistant Vice President for Strategic Planning and Forecasting at Barclays. Few people outside the corporate world will even understand what that title means. That’s okay with her, because she’s more than a job title. She is also a wife and mother, and she’s become the inspiration for the behemoth corporation she works for, in supporting our active duty and veteran military members. It started with baked goods and Swedish Fish, and grew into a movement. Barbara’s inbox contained a special email one day. A friend of hers told Barbara about men deployed in Afghanistan alongside her brother. Many of these men, the friend explained, received few to no letters or care packages from home. Would Barbara be willing to help? Just one care package or letter would make an enormous difference in the day of any of the men so far from home, in dangerous territory, trying to stay positive. The request pulled at her. Barbara jumped on it.