How Dash In Team Members Bring Community Engagement to Life
In 2025, Dash In and its parent company, Wills Group, logged more than 640 volunteer hours and supported 52 local nonprofits and organizations. As Wills Group celebrates 100 years of moving lives forward this year, we are reflecting on how we serve our communities and thinking strategically about how we will continue to show up for the next 100 years.
Caring for our communities and people has always been part of who we are. Today, our commitment to moving lives forward is brought to life through the passion and dedication of our people. Across our organization, team members are stepping outside of their day-to-day roles to support initiatives that nourish, reimagine, and advance the communities we serve.
Our three signature programs – Nourishing Children and Families, Reimagining Outdoor Spaces, and Advancing Waterways and Watersheds – are led by our Community Leadership Team and Committees, made up of team members who volunteer their time to serve these issue areas. Since 2016, Team Members have contributed more than 3,400 volunteer hours through our community engagement committees. For them, this commitment to community engagement is personal.
In this blog, we speak with two of our team members – Rebecca Rodriguez, Nourishing Children and Families committee member, and Brandon Fisher, Reimagining Outdoor Spaces committee member – about why community engagement is meaningful to them and how their work helps to bring community engagement to life.
How Dash In Revitalizes Community Parks and Why It Matters
For Brandon, giving back through community projects connects directly to his own childhood.
Growing up in Cheverly, Maryland, he remembers what it means to have safe places to gather, play, and just be part of a community.
“I grew up in a small town where we had parks and places to just be kids,” Brandon shared. “But outside of my community, it was not always like that. There weren't too many places where kids could hang out and just feel safe.”
Through park revitalization projects like Phoenix Run Park in La Plata, Maryland in 2022, and Folk Memorial Park in Newark, Delaware in 2025, Brandon and fellow volunteers helped transform local spaces into places where families can come together – from repainting basketball courts to building walking trails.
Projects like these are part of Dash In’s Reimagining Outdoor Spaces program.
“For me, it is about creating spaces where people can feel connected,” Brandon said. “These projects are ultimately successful because we work hand-in-hand with local organizations and community members to realize their vision for what the community needs.”
When we began the Newark, Delaware park project, the company started by working with the Newark Delaware Parks and Recreation planning department. Dash In collaborated with park staff to understand what the park was lacking and how intentional revitalization could add value to the community.
Dash In presented several proposals to Newark City Council, taking feedback from community members on what they most wanted to see in the park and how it would best enhance their day-to-day lives.
This partnership with the Newark Delaware Parks and Recreation planning department and Newark City Council informed the direction of the Folk Memorial Park walking path and food forest that was completed in 2025.
“The community overall was very warm and appreciative of the investment made in Folk Memorial Park,” said Brandon. “Community members were very impressed with how Wills Group showed up to address community priorities and wishes. It ended up being an opportunity to get to know one another better and to really build more nuanced understandings and relationships.”
Providing Food Security for Families Long-Term
Dash In’s Nourishing Children and Families program works to address food insecurity in the communities we serve by partnering with local food banks and community organizations to expand access to nutritious meals for children, seniors, and families.
“Maryland is one of the wealthiest states in the nation, but there is still a huge gap between those who have access to food and those who do not, with 1 in 3 Marylanders facing food insecurity,” Rebecca explained.
One of Rebecca’s responsibilities as a member of the Nourishing Children and Families community engagement committee is to manage existing relationships and find new opportunities to partner with local food banks. Dash In currently works with five food banks across Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, including FeedMore, Capital Area Food Bank, Delaware Food Bank, Maryland Food Bank, and Southern Maryland Food Bank.
Rebecca’s experience has shown that access to food impacts far more than a single meal.
“When children do not have consistent access to food, it affects their performance in school and their future opportunities,” Rebecca said. “When you support one child, you are really supporting an entire community.” That belief drives how Dash In approaches food security—not as a short-term need, but as a long-term investment in community wellbeing.
This approach to long-term impact informs our more than nine-year partnership with Feed More, during which time the company has contributed to food distribution programs in addition to a $100,000 donation in 2024 to fund a truck to rescue and reclaim food. The vehicle allowed Feed More to receive 30% more product from distribution partners that otherwise would have gone to waste.
“Partnerships like Feed More show how supporting long-term investments, in addition to our work on the ground through volunteer hours and donations, lead to comprehensive support that goes beyond the moment,” said Rebecca.
Showing Up Together: How Employee Volunteering Builds Community
What sets our approach apart is this combination of financial investment and hands-on involvement.
From volunteering at food banks to supporting community projects, team members are actively involved in the neighborhoods they serve.
“There is something powerful about seeing it in person,” Rebecca shared. “When you are out there volunteering, you can actually see the difference you are making.”
These community volunteer experiences also help bring team members closer together through a shared sense of purpose. “It connects people from different parts of the business,” Brandon added. “After every event, people are asking what is next.”
How Dash In Teams are Volunteering This Year
Alongside these efforts, Dash In also invests in protecting natural resources through its Advancing Waterways and Watersheds initiatives, helping support the long-term health of the communities we serve.
As part of this initiative, in celebration of Earth Day on April 22, Dash In and Wills Group team members are coming together in support of the Bowie, Maryland community for a Project Clean Stream event in partnership with Alliance for Chesapeake Bay.
During the event, volunteers will collect and remove litter and trash from designated areas surrounding Chesapeake Baysox Baseball Stadium. The City of Bowie identified this location as a current priority because of the volume of waste that requires cleanup given its proximity to the Patuxent River.
“Partnering with city departments has been especially impactful in our work as they help us identify priorities for local communities, ensuring that we are focusing support where it is needed most,” added Rebecca.
Looking Ahead: The Next 100 Years
As Dash In’s parent company, Wills Group, celebrates its centennial milestone, stories like Rebecca’s and Brandon’s remind us that legacy is not just built on what we have achieved. It is built on how we continue to show up.
Through the passion and dedication of our people, we are carrying forward a century-long commitment to supporting our communities in meaningful ways.
When team members are empowered to give back, the impact goes far beyond a single moment. It creates lasting change.
As we look ahead to the next 100 years, our commitment to keeping Lives in Motion is stronger than ever.
To learn more about how we are making an impact, explore our 2025 Community Engagement Report.
