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The 71st Midland Area Chamber of Commerce annual meeting held this past week celebrated success in adversity and growth in recession.  For five years SPACE, Inc. has supported Chamber iniatives and membership by sponsoring an award given to a person in the community who exemplifies giving back and fostering growth. 

The award grew out of SPACE’s commitment to community involvement and the desire by the owners of SPACE to recognize that same commitment in others.  SPACE has community service as a core value and encourages and supports every team member’s effort to live the value.

This year’s winner is Wayne Crosby, founder of Re/Max of Midland.  Wayne’s impact on and in the community is evidenced every year by the Re/Max Balloon Festival he organizes as the kickoff event for the United Way campaign.  He’s been a campaign chair and served as President of the United Way of Midland County Board of Directors in 1999.  He’s also served on the Chamber board and has been a Rotarian for almost 20 years.  Recently, when the local food pantries were running short, Wayne organized and led the drive to restock them.  His efforts raised cash and goods valued at nearly $80,000. 

Wayne joins past honorees Marty McGuire, Orrin Barrett, Cliff Miles, and Greg Dorrien.   SPACE is proud to sponsor the award that recognizes community commitment.  It takes our internal core value and expands it to include the greater community.

Congratulations to Wayne Crosby, the 2010 “Excellence in Community Service” Award winner!

No, it’s not Spring yet….but, it’s never too early to start promoting the MS Walk.  Usually the walk occurs in April, but this year the Midland MS Walk is on Saturday, May 1. 

The SPACE team has been very supportive of this fundraising event and I’m looking forward to another successful walk.  Those team members who don’t participate in the walk, financially support those who do.  Those who do walk bring spouses, children, wagons, and strollers.  It’s a company-wide, family-oriented event capped by a group breakfast afterward. 

The Midland MS Walk is only 3 miles long, but it is the perfect length for families.  It winds through the historical district and includes a portion of the Rail Trail.  There are 600 Walks in the U.S. each year.  The National MS Society also promotes “Challenge Walks” that are 2 or 3 day events covering 30-50 miles.  Maybe next year?

Stay tuned for updates as we get closer to the Walk date.

Do you like to garden?  Are you a dog lover?  What about scrapbooking and arts and crafts?  Turn your talent into a volunteer opportunity to help others.

Rider with side-walkers and horse leader

For example, if you love horses, you could volunteer for the “Tall in the Saddle” program that provides side walkers and horse leaders to help physically and mentally-challenged children and young adults learn to ride horses.   Your skill with arts and crafts can help keep senior citizens active and alert….and, you might learn something from them, too.  Become a tutor through the Literacy Council and help someone learn to read; what a great gift to give!

Pet therapy volunteers take their animals to senior housing, day care facilities, and rehabilitation centers so residents can enjoy the calming effect of petting an animal.  If that’s not your cup of tea, how about a cup of tea?  Visiting shut-ins and residents in senior homes, listening to their fascinating stories, and sharing a cup of tea is a great way to volunteer your time. 

If you like to get dirty, how about giving your time to maintaining greenery at a non-profit agency, senior citizens’ home, or at an elderly neighbor’s?  Volunteers are needed for planting flowers in the Spring and raking in the Fall.  Before you know it, the annual Midland Blooms planting along Eastman Road will be here.  This is a great opportunity that makes a huge visible impact on our community.

Serving on a board of directors, offering your professional services pro bono, and coaching a kid’s basketball team are more ways to get involved and give back.  There’s no shortage of need and no shortage of talent.   It’s the job of the United Way Volunteer Center to put the two together. 

So, don’t hide your light under a bushel….share your talent with your community!

SPACE’s newly-selected Employee Council didn’t take long to come up with some great ideas to emphasize and promote SPACE core values.  One they’re working on right now is to set up a blood drive at SPACE.

There’s always a need for blood, but the overwhelming catastrophe in Haiti has kept that need front and center.  Our Employee Council took it upon themselves to answer the call and make it a company-wide event.  While many of us have donated blood, SPACE itself has never sponsored a blood drive.  Thank you to our Employee Council for embracing the SPACE core value of giving back to the larger community.

According to Jessie, an Employee Council member, if you can’t give blood, you can volunteer to help in some other way.   Volunteers are needed to promote the drive, recruit and register donors, schedule appointments, etc.  Further details will be forthcoming once a firm date is known.   So…keep an eye out for the mobile blood unit in our parking lot!

One hundred women, one hundred dollars each, one non-profit program equal a $10,000 impact on the Midland community.   Last year, Bobbie Arnold, founder of the club, called a few friends who called a few friends and the Midland 100 Club was born with 35 members.  It has grown to 102 members.

This isn’t your regular club.  There are no monthly meetings.  It’s not a service organization.  There are no fundraising dinners or events.   What it is is a response from busy women who want to make a difference in a big way. 

Here’s how it works.  The members meet for an hour 3 times a year.  At the beginning of each meeting anyone who wants to put a name of a non-profit organization (501C3) or program into a hat can do so.  Three names are drawn and the people who submitted the entries are asked to stand up and make a simple oral presentation about their submission.  There’s a Q & A session after each presentation.   After all three presentations, the members vote on which one will get the club’s donation.  Then each woman writes a check for $100 made out to the charity.  That means record-keeping is minimal as the non-profit organization then responds directly to the donor. 

One of the owners of SPACE, Kathie, is a member.  Other SPACE employees will be joining in the near future.  Kathie reports that the first meeting she attended resulted in a donation of $8700 to MidMichigan Regional Medical Center’s Mammography Fund.  The donation covers the cost of breast screenings for women who can’t afford the service.

The most recent meeting last week resulted in the Midland Emergency Food Pantry Network “Backpack Buddies” program receiving the donation.  This program provides a backpack filled with nutritious food to children on Fridays so they will have something to eat over the weekend.  The children return to school on Monday nourished and ready to learn.  The backpacks are used by children enrolled in the free or reduced-cost lunch programs and Midland schools.   

 In a Saginaw News article in September, Bobbie Arnold said, “It’s a simple way to let others help: not a lot of money, not a lot of time.  But the effect of three gifts a year multiplied by the number of members will in time grow to be truly significant.”

While Spring, Summer, and Fall provide a majority of our community service activities, there are still opportunities in mid-Winter to keep you involved.  Case in point:  North Midland Family Center’s annual “Call of the Wild” event on January 29th.  The proceeds from this event go to fund NMFC’s programs that benefit families living in northern Midland County. 

From fitness classes to food pantry, family counseling services to Outward Bound and child care, the center offers support, training, and resources to the area it serves.  Carolyn, one of SPACE’s account managers, is on the board of directors of NMFC and supports its mission by encouraging other SPACE team members to participate in this fundraiser by attending the dinner, buying raffle tickets, and bidding in the silent auction.

The “Call of the Wild” is billed as “an Outdoor Extravaganza and Hearty Meal.”  Not only is there a great dinner, but special guests like Mike Avery, Mark Gwizdala, and Art Lewis will be on hand.  Lou E. Loon will also put in an appearance.  Outdoor vendors will be on site as will Midland Daily News Big Buck Contest Winners.   Games and contests for kids and adults provide additional entertainment. 

While the wintry winds are howling outside, the North Midland Family Center’s Call of the Wild event will warm you, feed you, and entertain you.  In turn, you will be supporting community services that impact so many people.

Two of our SPACE team members are involved in very different events that give back to our community and help others.  Let’s see what they’ve been up to:

Gary and his immediate family, as well as sisters, a niece, his mother-in-law, and some close friends participated in the Leelanau County Relay this past summer in memory of his father-in-law who passed away in 2009.  As Gary recounts the story, “I thought I would be superman and run several miles throughout the night.”  However, after a short while into it, he realized that his “legs did not want to participate in the fun.”  He said he had trouble walking for 2 days after the event.  Despite that, Gary’s family is planning on making this an annual event.  Stay tuned to see if Gary achieves superman status in 2010.

Donna volunteers with the Johnny Burke Children’s Foundation.  The foundation helps to pay medical bills for sick children, find appropriate medical attention for children in need, cover travel and lodging expenses when the kids have to visit specialists or have extensive testing done, and supply specialized equipment that insurance may not cover.  There are fundraising events held throughout the year that require the help of volunteers:  several golf outings, the Frankenmuth Clam and Lobster Fest, the Celebrity Rib challenge, and others.  Donna donates her time to these events which raise money for children in the tri-city area.

Thank you both for embracing SPACE’s core value of community service.  You ARE making a difference!

I usually blog about how SPACE team members impact the external community, but this Christmas the SPACE team came together to support one of our own. 

One of our team had to have surgery and may need a second surgery.  He has been on unpaid leave for several weeks after he used up all his compensated time off.   To help his family, Carol suggested a “giving tree” filled with a variety of gift cards. 

SPACE team members got together and purchased all sorts of cards from Meijer, Walmart, gas stations and Target.  The tree was filled with red and white tags, miniature Christmas balls, and candy canes.  In addition, the company (thank you Kathie and Lisa) matched the gifts. 

So, the company core value of “community service” isn’t just for events that are more visible in the community.  It works quietly out of the public eye, too. 

What a great way to say “Merry Christmas” to a fellow employee!

SPACE, Inc. held our annual Christmas party this Friday following our quarterly team meeting.  Yes, we had a lovely setting, fully and beautifully decorated.  Yes, we had Secret Santa gifts for each other.  Yes, there was a delicious meal that received rave reviews.  But…

We also used the opportunity to create holiday memories for others in our community who aren’t as fortunate as we are.  Kathie and Stacy baked almost 200 cookies.  Each team member got 6 cookies to decorate with frosting and all varieties of toppings.  Enjoying the camaraderie of our tablemates, we created festive, colorful cookies.  After the frosting set, they were donated to Hidden Harvest, a local non-profit that distributes food to soup kitchens, food pantries, and shelters.

Even our Secret Santa gifts reflected commitment to a larger community.  Some team members gave back by donating funds in honor of the recipient’s favorite cause.  Beneficiaries were the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Cancer Society, and Heifer International.

Thank you to all the SPACE Team for sharing with others during this Season of Giving.  We live our core value of community service every day.  Merry Christmas to all!

SPACE, Inc. may not have Santa’s sleigh or workshop, but we’ve got a 24′ truck and a few elves that work just as well!  Last Sunday both were put to good use transporting Sharing Tree gifts from the United Way building to the distribution center at Blessed Sacrament School. 

Sharing Tree is a program of the United Way Volunteer Center that matches needs with donors and provides Christmas gifts to children and families that may not otherwise get them.   Requests are received from non-profit agencies, churches, and schools and are cataloged and sorted in a database that eliminates duplicates.  Colorful tags are printed with the gift request details (specific toy, clothing sizes, color preferences, etc.) and hung on trees placed in prominent positions throughout the community.  People take the tags, fill each request, and return the wrapped or bagged gifts to designated drop-off points or the United Way building.  

That’s where the SPACE “sled” comes in.  On the Sunday before Sharing Tree Monday, SPACE donates a truck to help move all the gifts from the United Way building and other drop-off points to the distribution center.  This year the move took about 4-1/2 hours to complete.

On Monday, hundreds of volunteers move all the gifts from the storage site at Blessed Sacrament to the individual agencies that distribute the presents.  Volunteers serve as unloaders, runners, checkers, wrappers, and kitchen help.  In a 6-hour span on Monday, several thousand gifts are checked in, carried to agency tables where they are logged in, and then boxed up for transport back to the agencies. 

Midway through the morning, one of the classes from Blessed Sacrament strolls through the halls and gym singing Christmas songs.  You can’t help but feel good inside knowing that you’re helping to make Christmas for so many.  Everyone wears a smile….even after 5 hours of running gifts.  Now that’s what Christmas is all about!