{"id":237011,"date":"2014-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-07T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/rekindling-downtown\/"},"modified":"2014-07-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-07T07:00:00","slug":"rekindling-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/rekindling-downtown\/","title":{"rendered":"Rekindling Downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Local techie group facilitates the philanthropic spirit of a 10 year old<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vince Meehan |\u00a0Downtown News<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/a>
Chris Hooley of Instant Checkmate gives a homeless man a backpack full of
necessities (Photo by Vince Meehan<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ten floors above Columbia Street in the heart of Downtown, a group of techies were busy stuffing backpacks with hand towels, socks, wet wipes, toothpaste and various other items that a homeless person may need.<\/p>\n

The men and women of The Control Group \u2014 a web-development company whose flagship site is InstantCheckmate.com<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 are nearly ready to hit the streets for their \u201cI Got Your Back\u201d backpack giveaway.<\/p>\n

These \u201cweb-heads\u201d are planning to fan out across Downtown in search of homeless people and provide them with the backpacks they\u2019ve filled with necessities.<\/p>\n

Chris Hooley is the director of search marketing for Instant Checkmate, and he is bouncing off the walls in anticipation of the giveaway. His enthusiasm is contagious; soon the entire staff is loading up and charging out the door in search of the needy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is all a part of reKindle, a nonprofit co-founded by my 10-year old daughter Kaylee,\u201d said Hooley as he reached down to muss up his daughter\u2019s hair. \u201cShe got the idea by watching a YouTube video where some guys in Phoenix went out to help homeless vets on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaylee said she wants her project to \u201cgo viral\u201d and catch on in other cities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was inspired by the message in Michael Jackson\u2019s \u2018Make a change\u2019 video,\u201d said the younger Hooley. \u201cI want this to rekindle compassion in people\u2019s lives and spread the idea of helping one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

reKindle is one of many after-hours programs that the crew from The Control Group are involved with. Sean Shahrokhi, director of project management, has also come along to support Kaylee and her foundation. He explained The Control Group\u2019s philosophy, which is to get involved in local projects, thus giving back to the community.<\/p>\n

\"Hooley\u2019s<\/a>
Hooley\u2019s daughter Kaylee co-founded the charity.
(Photo by Vince Meehan<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cKris Kibak and Joey Rocco are the co-founders of The Control Group, and they have been active in the community from the get-go,\u201d Shahrokhi said. \u201cNow, the entire company volunteers for things like the Helen Woodward Animal Shelter and I Love A Clean San Diego\u2019s beach clean-ups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out on the street, the crew has found a pocket of homeless near the Civic Center and begins to distribute the backpacks. Hooley makes it a point to engage the homeless is conversation and ask them if there is anything specific they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I did this, I really didn\u2019t know what they needed outside of cold water and food,\u201d Hooley said. \u201cI found out that many of the homeless asked for socks, so we have plenty of them in our backpacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treating the homeless with respect and dignity is important to Hooley, and he proves it by high-fiving thankful recipients and joking with them in his thick Boston accent. After the 110 backpacks were distributed, he felt bad because several people did not receive one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI bet these people would love a pizza party,\u201d Hooley said with his Irish grin. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do, let\u2019s go get some pizza for these guys!\u201d<\/p>\n

With that, Hooley told everybody to stay put and get ready for a party.<\/p>\n

As he was leaving, he patted one man on the back and asked him, \u201cHow\u2019s your day going?\u201d<\/p>\n

The man smiled and said, \u201cYou just made it awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more about Kaylee\u2019s charity organization, \u201creKindle,\u201d visit rekindle.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Correction: A previous version of this article stated Hooley’s title and company name incorrectly and had a misspelling of\u00a0Kris Kibak’s name.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Local techie group facilitates the philanthropic spirit of a 10 year old Vince Meehan |\u00a0Downtown News Ten floors above Columbia Street in the heart of Downtown, a group of techies were busy stuffing backpacks with hand towels, socks, wet wipes, toothpaste and various other items that a homeless person may need. The men and women […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":237012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Rekindling Downtown","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}