Business volunteerism, donating build a better community
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ALPENA -- On Saturday, about 60 participants doused themselves in color and ran, walked, and trotted through downtown Alpena, raising more than $5,000 for the Boys and Girls Club of Alpena.
The event's organizers, employees at Wolverine State Credit Union, decided some time ago that they wanted to provide a fun event for the community and do something nice for someone at the same time.
A color run fit the bill, and employees -- already heavily involved in volunteering and donating for other events -- thought the Boys and Girls Club seemed a good cause to support with their fundraiser, said Loren Jackson, marketing director for the credit union, who coordinates company community involvement.
Supporting the community can be as simple as showing up and lending a hand, and Alpena is full of businesses that do their part to take care of the people around them, Jackson said.
Everyone can play a hand in creating and sustaining a place where people want to raise their kids and put down roots, she said.
"Make it a good place to live," Jackson urged. "The more we help, the more our community thrives."
At Saturday's color run, participants in the 5K run and one-mile walk jubilantly flung color packets into the air at the start of each event, their shirts -- and faces, and hair -- gaining more color as they passed color stations along the route that wound through parts of downtown.
Volunteers for the run included several people who just wrapped up several busy weeks organizing and working at the Alpena County Fair.
The county fair folks were happy to help, especially since Wolverine volunteers manned ticket booths for much of the fair. People who try to do good in their community support each other, too, Jackson said.
She ticked off a long list of organizations and events impacted by Wolverine volunteers, from banquets and auctions to carnivals and family fun days.
The company's 45 employees help neighbors in need by bowling to raise money, buying and wrapping Christmas presents for kids, cleaning up roadside trash, and leaping in icy water at the annual Polar Plunge for Special Olympics.
Some time ago, employees decided they wanted to purchase and box up Thanksgiving meals for people who needed them.
They started making phone calls that eventually lead to a partnership allowing them to provide meals for domestic and sexual abuse survivors.
In the meantime, by picking up the phone and asking who needed help, they learned about other groups that could use a hand making the community better, Jackson said.
Hers is not the only organization in town in which employees happily donate their own money, solicit donations from others, show up for events, "and then volunteer afterward to help clean it up," Jackson knows.
"I'm floored by all the businesses in this community that give," she said. "It's just amazing."
Creating a community that's the best it can be takes many ideas, and many willing hands to make those ideas a reality, she said.
Businesses not yet connected to their community through volunteerism need look only as far as their employees for ideas. She suggested, as a start, letting workers vote on where to donate money raised by simple internal fundraisers such as Jeans Fridays.
Pitching in, wherever and however businesses can, fosters an outward focus that helps everyone involved, Jackson said.
"I just think it makes us all better people," she said. "And it feels good."
Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.