Community Support

4/19/2022 (Permalink)

The Salvation Army Derry

As someone who has been in the service industry for over 40 years now, I can say with some level of accuracy, that being a part of the community you serve reaps dividends. It's not just about donations or sponsorships, it's also about volunteerism, being a resource, networking to help others and being an advocate for your community and other businesses within your community.

I am a Board Member for three non-profits in my community, but I also help out when and where needed for the other non-profits in our community. Several years back, pre-COVID, I contacted our local Salvation Army and explained to them my position with SERVPRO, Sales/Marketing Manager. Part of my job is to go out in the community and meet business owners and managers, developing relationships along the way.

They weren't quite sure how to connect the dots, but after some brain storming, we came up with an idea to help them stock their food pantry. They had heavy duty grocery bags imprinted with the Salvation Army logo and a list of non-perishables and toiletries most commonly needed. I took these bags and met up with community business owners and managers, and asked if I could have them leave the bag out for their staff to donate, if they chose to. I would then come by a week or two later to pick them up.

Only one business out of 20 declined, the rest were happy to help. The collection total came out to about 30 bags filled with items for the food pantry, and numerous stories of how the Salvation Army helped them or somebody they knew.

Success! A feeling of doing a good thing for a good organization, and recognition by our community for being a good community supporter.