May, 24, 2005 -- Asher & Company and nine other businesses in the office building at 1845 Walnut Street hosted an educational open house for 90 fourth-grade students from H.A. Brown Elementary School; presenting short programs on how different companies work, what kinds of employees work there, and what skills they use in their jobs. 

Many of these children had only seen office buildings from the outside and the school’s educators were thrilled for the students to learn more about what goes on inside. Robert Cohen, Guidance Counselor at H.A. Brown School stated that it was a great experience, and that he had never seen anything like it in his 30 years at the school.

Bill Burns, the director at Asher who conceived the idea for event, added, “I received feedback from team leaders and teachers that the children really learned a lot today, and you could see that they clearly enjoyed it.  For its first year, we thought the programming at all the companies and the overall day went extremely well—it exceeded our expectations.”

The participating businesses included: Asher & Company, Ltd., CSS Industries, Inc., Drucker & Scaccetti, PC, Frankel Enterprises, Inc., Hudson United Bank, Jewish Employment Vocational Services, Raynes & McCarty, Resource America, Savitz Organization, and Strategic Medical Services, Inc.  Representatives from Greater Philadelphia Cares provided valuable assistance during the day as well.

The children were organized into nine teams named after office items: clipboards, bells, briefcases, stamps, file cabinets, paperclips, copiers, desks and pens.  

The teams visited two to three companies where they took office tours, and saw features that were unique to certain businesses such as bank vaults and videoconferencing rooms. They met different kinds of professionals on the tours who gave brief talks about their jobs. All the companies used creative, hands-on activities to engage and teach the children about what they do. 

One business helped the children to identify their strengths and to think about how these strengths might be used someday in their chosen professions. Some companies gave out special program certificates, and all the businesses generously gave pens, pads, snacks and other corporate giveaways.  The Philadelphia Phillies donated baseball caps for each child and Wawa donated refreshments.  

		The first-ever "Visit Our Office Day" for H.A. Brown Elementary School begins.
		Team Leaders gather in the lobby.
		H.A. Brown fourth-graders excitedly arrive.
		Mrs. Shuster, H.A. Brown's Principal, meets up with Bill Burns and Steve Carr of Asher.
		The "Briefcase" team gets ready for the day's activities.
		The "Copier" team gets in place for the first company tour.
		Justine gives a brief overview of Asher.
		The children learn what an accountant does.
		All the companies use creative ways to show the children what they do.
		This group tours a bank and sees a vault and lockboxes, among other highlights.
		An interactive activity wraps up Asher's tour.