Kids Will Benefit From Luxaire, Make-A-Wish Partnership
In addition to delivering heating and cooling systems, followers of Luxaire are helping to bring hope, strength, and joy to special children and their families. Luxaire has a three-year commitment to partner with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, considered the world’s oldest and largest wish-granting organization. Somewhere in the world, every hour of every day, the Make-A-Wish Foundation realizes the wish of a child with a life-threatening illness.
As a corporate sponsor, every sale of a Luxaire product goes towards the company’s minimum annual contribution of $250,000 to the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Furthermore, the dollars raised by wholesalers, distributors, and contractors who sell Luxaire products help support local Make-A-Wish chapters in their respective local markets. Luxaire is also encouraging homeowners to donate all or a portion of their rebates, which will be offered
during the company’s fall promotions, to their local Make-A-Wish chapter.
“Our involvement with the Make-A-Wish Foundation is a way that we could bring comfort to special children in our communities,” said Doug Widenmann, director of Residential Marketing for York UPG. “And we believe it is a way to tap into the power of local community support and get consumers to care about their purchases of our products in a way that is unique within our industry. Because the Make-A-Wish Foundation enjoys 95% brand recognition among consumers nationally, we know that our partnership also makes good business sense. It enables us to attract a larger consumer audience and recruit new customers.”
In my eyes, it’s just plain refreshing. It’s called giving back.
ONE EXAMPLE
It’s refreshing to know, for instance, that ABCO Refrigeration plans to help the Make-A-Wish chapter in the Staten Island, NY, area. This distributor has teamed up with the Staten Island Yankees, a Triple A minor league baseball club, for a benefit home game against the New Jersey Cardinals on August 25. Employees of ABCO will help man a Make-A-Wish booth at the game, as will employees from contractors Larsen & Ruggiero Mechanical (New York, NY), A-1 Service Masters Inc. (Staten Island), and Comfort Air HVAC Inc. (Staten Island).Though these may be small contracting firms, each has pledged a substantial amount to give to Make-A-Wish. Alvin Card, owner of Comfort Air HVAC Inc., is donating $1,000 on his own.
“It’s for a good cause,” he explained. “If I didn’t think otherwise, I wouldn’t be putting in this amount on my own.”
Looking for quick answers on air conditioning, heating and refrigeration topics? Try Ask ACHR NEWS, our new smart AI search tool. Ask ACHR NEWS
The Staten Island Yankees will be helping right along. The shirts worn by the home team will be autographed by the players after the game. These jerseys will then be auctioned off on the team’s website. All proceeds will go to the local Make-A-Wish chapter.
Sally Ann Whalen, office manager for ABCO Refrigeration, is hoping the entire day raises $20,000. She noted that there is a child within the Staten Island area with a life-threatening illness that desires to go to Disney World. Money raised will help this child get his wish.
“We want this to happen,” said Whalen. “It would be great.”
Luxaire said that several studies have shown that when a good company aligns itself with a good cause, the combination is very successful.
“Luxaire’s main goal is to build a long-term relationship with a nationally-recognized charitable organization that can offer us, our distributors, and our dealers strong grass roots benefits, setting an example for the HVAC industry, generating consumer and trade interest in the program,
and fulfilling the Luxaire promise of ‘Setting the Performance Standard,’” said Widenmann.
Time will tell if this partnership with Make-A-Wish will boost Luxaire’s visibility, sales, or market share.
The partnership will definitely help some needy kids. Nothing wrong with that.
Skaer is editor-in-chief. He can be reached at 248-244-6446; 248-362-0317 (fax); markskaer@achrnews.com (e-mail).
Publication date: 06/17/2002