Melissa DiCicco has kept a can of Coca-Cola for nearly a year and a half.
DiCicco, senior manager of community and events at Brookfield-based
Landmark Credit Union, was volunteering at
United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County’s Project Homeless Connect event in October 2023 when she met a woman, named Julia, who was experiencing homelessness at the time.
Project Homeless Connect is an annual event, held on
Marquette University’s campus, that helps provide essential items and services to people who are homeless.
DiCicco said she had helped carry bags out to Julia’s bike. While packing up items she received at the event, Julia pulled out a can of Coca-Cola and offered it to DiCicco. At first, DiCicco declined to accept it, but Julia was persistent. DiCicco said she still has the Coke after all this time.
“I’ve kept this can of Coke, because it’s just so kind that here is someone that maybe doesn’t have enough, and yet she’s willing to give what she does have to me,” DiCicco said.
DiCicco’s interaction with Julia has stuck with her and further fueled her passion for community service, because “it’s the kindness of others that keeps me going,” she said.
DiCicco, who was recently appointed to United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County’s volunteer engagement committee, works to coordinate volunteer events for Landmark Credit Union employees. She has spearheaded Landmark’s path to volunteerism since 2016, when her team collaborated with United Way for the company’s first sandwich-making event.
That year, the Landmark team volunteered a total of 55 hours for the sandwich volunteer event. By 2019, the Landmark team reached 853 volunteer hours, not including their individual volunteerism unaffiliated with the company.
DiCicco’s efforts to grow Landmark’s volunteer support for United Way specifically have resulted in Landmark hosting a diaper packing event and United Way’s annual Winter Bites event last year. Landmark’s support for other organizations has grown as well. Last year, the Landmark team logged more than 3,700 volunteer hours through the company’s organized events.
DiCicco also volunteers independently for United Way and other nonprofit organizations with her husband, Paul, and 11-year-old daughter, Sophia. She wants her daughter to understand that “it’s our duty” to give back to the community, DiCicco said. She first brought Sophia along to volunteer at an event in 2018.
“While she may have things, I want her to understand that others don’t have that,” DiCicco said.
Combining time spent volunteering independently and working events hosted at Landmark, DiCicco volunteered about 70 hours for United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County in 2024.
