Group of friends join forces to give back to Philadelphia community

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Over the past year, a group of friends in Philadelphia have been filling the need for local charities.

Meet Tiffany Nguyen and Samantha Engler, two working women who wanted to find a way to give back to their communities. They noticed some holes in the volunteer organizations that were available, so they put their heads together, grabbed two more of their friends, A.J. DiValerio, and Momin Sheikh, and they made their own. Their organization is called "Friends for Good."

"We're a social philanthropic organization, so our goal is to create a community of like-minded individuals, young professionals that come together for a greater good by giving back," said Nguyen. "There's nothing in the city that I know of that unites like-minded individuals in this way."

"It makes it a lot easier to know that I'm going to walk into a room full of people that are there for the same reasons as me and coming to look for more people like me to hang out with and do these good things with," said Engler.

Then things got a little harder. The year-old organization that typically holds large community events and galas, was hit with its very first problem, a pandemic. So, an outdoor workout event was born, called Fitness Feeds Philly.

"By doing the outdoor series we are able to keep a safe social distance, bring lots of people together that week and have some fun," said Engler.

So far, the event has raised over $3,000 that will be donated right to Philabundance.

"We just knew it was this immediate impact. A couple of hours of our time could absolutely change somebody's day, week, month for life," said Engler. "Do good, feel good, friends for good, and we really take that to heart."