Community involvement is a key strategy for many automotive recyclers.nCommunity involvement is a way to put a human face behind auto recycling, because we remain a misunderstood industry. What better way to relate to people than with something that’s important to the local area your business serves?nnWhen a business is a proud community partner, the impact is larger—and so are the numbers on the fundraising side of things because it’s easier to capture media attention.nnTire Take Back has generated more than $1 million over the last seven years to support the Sunshine Foundation of Canada, which makes dreams come true for children living with severe disabilities or illnesses. Many of the dreams fulfilled by Sunshine involve visiting Walt Disney World, so Logel’s Auto Parts issued a press release in a province-wide effort to send kids to Disney by bringing in their scrapped tires. In doing so, they were able to garner media attention to both the cause and their business.nn“Community involvement is important to us at Logel’s because we’ve been in business at the same location for almost 60 years,” says John Logel Jr., the Owner of Logel’s Auto Parts. “We have deep roots in Kitchener, and we believe it’s important to give back to the community that has helped us have a successful business for three generations. Plus, it gives us a chance to get our name out there and hopefully educate the public about what we do.”nnCommunity awareness campaignsnAuto recyclers’ community involvement doesn’t stop at fundraising. Most of the members have some sort of interaction with their local first responders and supply cars for extraction and vehicle fire training.nnMany also have partnerships with organizations like MADD, and will donate a wrecked car to be placed in front of the local school around prom night with signage on the dangers of drinking and driving.nn
nnThorold Auto Parts in Niagara has done a lot of work on texting and driving awareness, too. Thorold placed a wrecked car out front with a sign indicating this is what can happen when you text and drive. This project has now morphed into a full marketing program. It’s just a great opportunity to talk to the media about what auto recyclers are about.nnTaking it to social medianOur role as the association is to support those members who understand that you need to have a community profile and fresh content. If one recycler is doing something anywhere in Canada with a community angle, we’re pushing it out to our members via social channels like Facebook and Twitter.nnMore of the members understand this, and they’re looking to the association for a flow of fresh content. We always say we want you to be the go-to auto recycler in your community. We don’t want people to like OARA’snn nnFacebook page, we want them to like your Facebook page, so reuse our content to keep things fresh. That’s a part of what we’re trying to do from a strategic perspective.nnWe want to show everyone that this is easy stuff—if you’re not already doing it, then do it, and if you’re already doing it, then capture it and tell people about it.nnCollision Management July 2017