Jana Rauschenberg from West Michigan Auto Auction, Jay Watson from GE Fleet Remarketing (left), and Todd Sharp from Graff Chevrolet. In the spirit of giving, West Michigan Auto Auction and remarketing partner GE Fleet have teamed up contribute to community betterment nonprofit United Way.
For the third year in a row, the two companies have partnered for a third quarter, three-month long promotion that uses weekly raffles help generate United Way cash donations from customers and employees.
“What gets our customers excited is the fact that the funds collected are cycled back to the Grand Rapids community through the local United Way organization,” company officials explained.
“It is a win-win for everyone involved!” they added.
In an interview with Auto Remarketing, Jana Rauschenberg, fleet/lease sales manager at West Michigan Auto Auction, highlighted a few of the raffles and efforts the auction took to raise funds this time around.
“We did iPads, all kinds of stuff … we would also do great big buckets of snacks and pretzels and raffle those off, and there would be 30 of them in the lanes, and dealers would get a ticket at the beginning of a sale. And after they bought a car, they would get a snack basket to bring back to their store,” Rauschenberg noted.
“And about every week, there would a prize of $100 or $150 for customers and employees to get in the running for. It would be a dollar a ticket,” she added.
Furthermore, West Michigan Auto Auction also bestowed upon the top third-quarter buyer of GE consignments a GE appliance to be given to a charity or family in need.
And this top buyer was just selected last week — Todd Sharp, of Graff Chevrolet from Bay City, Mich.
This time around, Sharp was awarded a new GE stove, which he gave to a family that had been lacking a stovetop to cook meals on for over six months.
And Graff Chevrolet does its own share of charity work as well. The store is involved with charitable organization Just For Kids, benefiting families in need out of the Bay, Saginaw, and Midland Counties.
And West Michigan Auto Auction isn’t the only auction that partners with GE to contribute to United Way.
GE Fleet does a promotion for the nonprofit every year, and all of its auctions participate in their own way, Rauschenberg noted.
And as for how much West Michigan Auto Auction raised this year, Rauschenberg explained that the low volumes running through the lanes directly affected the promotion’s outcome.
“We raised close to $2,000, but this was our lowest year in dollars raised because we also match anything that the dealers contribute. In other words, if a dealer puts five dollars in for every car they buy, we would match it,” she told Auto Remarketing.
“And that is normally where we generate the most money. But because of low volume in the lanes, it was a slower year. A good year, but a slower year,” she concluded.
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