‘Tis the season for giving, and auto dealers across the country are in the holiday spirit. As active members of their communities, dealers are often key players in wintertime philanthropy efforts: supporting local family shelters, dedicating trucks in their showrooms to collections for the Marine Toys for Tots campaign, and sponsoring community holiday events.
In Antioch, N.Y., Raymond Auto Group partnered with the local police department to host their annual “Shop with a Cop” event to provide children with clothing and toys during the holiday season. Over 50 children enjoyed a pizza party, visit from Santa, and sponsored shopping spree with police escorts.
“Mark Scarpelli and his staff at the Raymond Auto Group continue to step up and support this program with time and money,” said Antioch Police Chief Geoffrey Guttschow. “Without Mark’s support, ‘Shop with a Cop’ would not happen. His generosity has allowed us to grow the shopping spree amount per child from $100 to $125, plus each family will be provided a $100 gift card toward a traditional holiday meal.”
To support families struggling to purchase holiday gifts this year, Marquette Buick GMC in Marquette, Mich. worked with the Mining Journal Cheer Club program to buy and collect bicycles for community children.
“We try to find something we can do to help the community,” Marquette General Manager Nikki Remilong said. “We’re so fortunate that in our community there are so many people that help out and this is just a small part.”
In Laredo, Texas, Sames Auto Group has a similar mission, collecting clothes and other perishable items like canned food and toiletries to donate to the shelter Bethany House. The 17th annual event hosted by Sames Kia, which includes performances by local school bands, collected enough donations to fill two semi-trucks.
The dealers of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association joined forces to support Operation Warm. In the metro New York area, there are over 550,000 children live in poverty, and many of them endure the winter without an effective coat. Over the past decade, GNYADA members have donated more than 80,000 warm winter coats for children. This year, they pledged $100,000 to buy coats, donated through local charities in New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley.
As local businesses with deep customer relationships, auto dealers are in a unique position to congregate the community to support local philanthropies. Many take advantage of this – the above are only a few examples of the great work being done in showrooms and service lanes nationwide.
