Building Turtle Pens – A Photo Story

Volunteering when you are a full-time employee is extremely time consuming, that's why we implemented #ContributionFriday at Mercedes-Benz.io. Once per quarter we are allowed to decide whether we want to go to work regularly or volunteer at a local facility. We kicked off the event on one of the hottest days of the year at Germany's oldest animal shelter in Stuttgart. Since one of the 15 participants is also one of our best photographers, we decided to not write, but show how the day went in pictures.

We started the day with a tour through the whole facility. The shelter holds round about 600-700 animals, including dogs and cats, but also goats, bunnies, birds and many more.

With our VIP access to all the areas of the shelter we were even allowed in the reptile house...

... where we didn't only see lots of turtles but also lizards and snakes.

Still smiling: this picture was taken before this group of MB.ioneers went to get a truck full of gravel.

Daniela from Customer and Data Insights was weeding the future turtle pens so we could place the cages and rocks.

Our UX twins Max and Moritz were distributing gravel to make the pens safe.

Next to the gardening we also built the cages that protect the turtles from the weather, as you can see our Managing Director Sophie doing.

Screw it let's do it! Jessi's attitude doesn't only apply to her daily work as Content Creator, but also operating a screw driver.

This is one of the two finished pens: the many hiding places are great, especially for male turtles who like to have some space for themselves. Different kinds of gravel keep the turtles entertained and give them opportunities to explore.

Product Owner Marc helped the turtles to move in...

Besides building turtle homes we spent our breaks in the senior dog house and got to know the older residents of the shelter. Our Product Owner Katharina befriended Bonnie.

Will our favorite good boy become Mercedes-Benz.io's next office dog?

The shelter just came across a case of animal hoarding and over 100 mice had to be accomodated. No problem for Kim, Kathi and Jörg, who spontaneously agreed on building a rodent pen as well.

Not only did we build new homes for the turtles and mice of the shelter, we also learned a lot about animal welfare in general and had a great time offsite with people from all kinds of departments. It's probably safe to say: our first #ContributionFriday was a success.

In case you didn't get enough – here are some more pictures:

Saving turtles and driving digital future for Mercedes-Benz sounds like something you could picture yourself doing?

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