by Kim Kilpatrick
July 13, 2011 4:59 PM
Whitney Houston said it best in her hit song ‘Greatest Love of All’ back in 1986: I believe the children are our future/ teach them well and let them lead the way/ show them all the beauty they possess inside. As nice as the song was, the message is often lost in today’s society. However, it is not lost upon companies within the self storage industry.
The self storage industry is known as being one that gets heavily involved in community efforts. Every Christmas season you can find a drop off station for Toys for Tots at a self storage facility. You’d be hard pressed not to find at least one team in your local little league without a self storage company as a sponsor either.
A-1 Self Storage in California is like many self storage facilities; they are very active within the community on a local and global level. The company donates to a number of healthcare, educational, and social service organizations. They have had a hand in building over 2,000 homes, developed a water well in Sudan, and established a micro-finance bank for women in Ghana.
To say that they are in involved in the community would be an understatement. What is especially notable are some of the efforts they are involved in that strictly benefit kids.
Recently, the self storage facility donated money to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. The money is expected to go to the hospital’s chaplaincy program and to help it buy necessary surgical equipment. Since they are the only hospital in the county dedicated to pediatrics and they are the pediatric trauma center for the area, it is vital that they do not run out of supplies.
Another effort, one that is still on-going, they call Operation Homefront: Back to School Brigade. With school right around the corner it is time for parents to start collecting school supplies for the kids before it gets too late.
However, there are a number of kids in the San Diego/Orange County area that go without every year. That is a problem that Operation Homefront hopes to remedy or at least slow down. Up until July 18, interested people can drop off school supplies at any local A-1 Self Storage location. Those items will then find their way into the capable hands of a young mind looking to learn by time school starts.
One of the great things about being so involved in the community, especially when it comes to the kids, is that people take notice of things done for children. While the deed is a good one and one that needed to be done, it doesn’t hurt that it comes with a whole lot of great customer-driving publicity!
Sources Used:
“A-1 Self Storage Donates to Rady Children’s Hospital of San Diego.” Inside Self Storage; 12 July 2011.
A-1 Self Storage; Operation Homefront: Back to School Brigade.