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Michael R. Morris |
I have never been more proud of my daughter, Jackie, than when she joined her high school Key Club freshman year and made it a priority in her life to give back to her community through personal service.
To put this in perspective, Jackie has always given me plenty of reasons to be proud. She is an A-average honor student (13th in her class of over 600); a talented and committed athlete; and a selfless individual who has always surrounded herself with good friends and done the right thing.
But when she decided to join Key Club last year and volunteered some of her extremely precious and limited free time to helping make other people's lives a little bit better, it raised my sense of pride in her to a new level, knowing she had grown into such a conscientious young adult.
I'm sure Allan Lutes can relate to this feeling. Lutes, who owns Alpha Remodeling in Ann Arbor, Mich., started a community service program called Labor of Love three years ago that has grown beyond his company to include hundreds of volunteers, local churches and organizations working to provide help to the elderly, disabled and needy.
It's one thing to do a good deed yourself and experience the euphoria that comes from committing a selfless and charitable act.
It's quite another to witness those around you become inspired to carry the torch of goodwill on their own.
This month's cover story ("Giving Back," page 22) highlights some of the things remodelers, including Lutes, are doing in their communities that have a positive impact on the lives of those less fortunate.
It's not the type of story we write every month, as our mission is to help remodelers improve their businesses with best practices and solutions to problems common to remodeling firm owners. But I'm sure you'll agree after reading this story that the companies we've featured have improved their businesses by the good deeds they're doing in their communities.
A cynic might say they're only doing these things to garner attention for their companies as good Samaritans so they can profit from the positive press they receive. While I can be prone to a cynical thought or two myself, I am certain this is not the case with these remodelers. In fact, if they do get any jobs because of the good that they do, I think it's a fitting and proper reward for their actions. And when good things happen to good people, it only serves as an example to the rest of us that doing a good deed or a kind act is the right thing to do.
If your company gives back to your community in some way, no matter how big or how small, I applaud you and thank you. Please take a moment to tell us what you're doing by using the Talkback function on the online version of this month's cover story at www.ProRemodeler.com.
630/288-8057, michael.morris@reedbusiness.com
Giving back to the community