A couple years ago, the Nasdaq Accessibility Network was seeking a spark to highlight its efforts supporting colleagues living with disabilities. The group, one of roughly a dozen employee networks designed to bolster a sense of community within the company, counted just 61 members at the time.
“We were trying to figure out what we needed to do to get some attention and let people know we existed,” says Kristen Conley, network co-chair and Head of Corporate Governance & Board Engagement at Nasdaq.
Hoping to generate excitement, the network invited Eric LeGrand to visit Nasdaq’s New York headquarters. The event – in which LeGrand, a former Rutgers University football player living with a spinal cord injury, spoke about his recovery and the thriving life he’d built as an entrepreneur – was a hit.
In the weeks that followed, more than 40 colleagues from Nasdaq offices across the country joined the network. Through LeGrand, Conley and her co-leads discovered the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation – and the community driven fundraising efforts of Team Reeve.
A lightbulb went off.
“We had been looking at doing some sort of race to get more of a teamwork aspect,” Conley says. “And so, it really was just a perfect circumstance. When they asked if we would be interested in participating, it was ‘Oh, my gosh, yes, we totally would.’”