Carlson Marketing's story can be a case study on how a corporation can support a philanthropic cause and rally their management, their employees and all other organizations that aspire to give back to the communitites in which they operate.

To give you a little background in their involvement with Habitat Detroit, we have to go back almost ten years when they decided as employees that they wanted to get involved with Habitat. They started out by raising funds on their own and created such excitement that they went to their management soliciting funds to sponsor a complete house. Their first house sponsorship was in 2005 as Habitat Detroit hosted the Jimmy Carter Work project. Their employees saw the fruits of their efforts and they knew they were part of an initiative of changing people's lives, as well as helping rebuilding Detroit neighborhoods.

They began holding fund raising events where they leveraged the involvement of one of their business entities - TGI Friday's. Annually preceding the Fall Blitz Build, employees from Carlson Marketing were actually offering to wait tables and then provide their gratuities to the Habitat Fund.

This year marked an additional undertaking by Kevin Smith, the operations manager for the TGI Friday's in Southeastern Michigan. He actually allowed a big tent to be put up in the back parking lot of their Dearborn restaurant. Funds were raised by the public making donations to assist in building the walls of Carlson Marketing's sponsored house that would be built during the Fall Blitz Build. Kevin and his crew cooked up a Habitat "special" lunch, the walls were all built and many people volunteered to be victims of the dunk tank.

Carlson Marketing's energies have gone beyond these just acknowledged. For years, they have sponsored the silent auction held at the Annual Awards and Volunteer Recognition Event. Getting those items would otherwise be very difficult or cost prohibitive if we undertook the task internally.

We are blessed to have Carlson Marketing as an active sponsor of Habitat Detroit.