As communities gathered this past weekend to celebrate a return to July 4th holiday traditions, we were reminded of the many ways that dealerships often sit at the heart of those communities, from small towns to big cities.
So, we wanted to celebrate dealerships’ positive impact by sharing some of our favorite stories from the last year or so of dealerships stepping up to bring their communities together.
Lighting up the 4th
Most recently, Allen Chevrolet Cadillac in Monroe, Michigan – “the front door to Michigan,” about a half hour south of Detroit – helped bring the Monroe County Fireworks show back in all its grandeur. The dealership took over as the primary sponsor for the event in 2019 but had to cancel it due to covid restrictions in 2020.
Now, event organizers and John Allen, General Manager at Allen Chevrolet Cadillac, are hoping to create a fund to support other events that help families in Monroe come together for some fun.
“What makes the community great makes us all great,” Allen told the Monroe News — read the whole story here.
Making space for lifetime memories
Earlier this year in Virginia, we loved hearing about Wright Way Motors in Covington, who cleared out the showroom floor to make space for the local high school’s senior prom.
After a difficult school year, local parents didn’t want their kids to miss out on their senior prom, too, but covid regulations prevented the school from hosting. Brandon Wright, who owns Wright Way Motors, volunteered his dealership as the venue simply because he’s “a sucker for kids,” he said. He even paid his staff to take an extra day off so the party planners could get set up.
“They’re our future. So, I wanted to make sure they’re taken care of and making memories,” Wright told the Washington Post. “We really wanted to make it special for them, considering the year they had.”
Check out the whole story and photos from the setup and event here.
Supporting local heroes
Dealers’ drive to support their communities isn’t limited to smaller towns and cities, either. Last year in Chicago, we were proud to help a Dealerware customer support front-line hospital workers by loaning them cars to get to and from work each day.
Fox Valley Auto Group worked with Cal’s Angels, a nonprofit organization that helps families fighting pediatric cancer at Chicago’s Lurie Children’s hospital. Together, Cal’s Angels and the Fox Valley team identified doctors and nurses who were walking or using public transit to get home after 12-hour shifts.
To help them get home more quickly and safely, Fox Valley mobilized for these doctors and nurses a fleet of special-cause loaners from their own inventory. Dealerware helped the dealer group set up contracts so the vehicles would be insured.
“During this pandemic, people’s lives are full of fear, frustration and anxiety… We’re going to get through this together, and hopefully the good thing that comes out of it is people helping people.” said Emir Abinion, Founder of Fox Valley Auto Group.
That opportunity to help a dealership support the people in their community is a particular point of pride for the Dealerware team. Read the whole Fox Valley Auto Group story here.
These are only three examples of dealers supporting their communities. We also enjoyed reading this year about Timmons’ Subaru’s donation to the Friends of Long Beach Animals in California. And about the impressive effort that sibling dealers Jane and Bill Fox undertook to create an opportunity for one of their own: AutoNews reports that the Fox’s helped make the dream of store ownership possible for one of their longtime employees.
There are endless stories to show that dealers are critical to their communities, and we appreciate the opportunity to share the positivity in our own small way. We’d love to hear more from you, too – share stories from your dealership or your community with us on our LinkedIn page.
