By Jon Niemeyer, Broker/Owner of EXIT Realty North Star in Norwalk, IA
Our office agreed to be a corporate sponsor for a community outreach called Lunch in the Park. It is organized by the Norwalk Area Ministerial Association, a group of representatives from each of the churches in our community of about 13,000 people.
Lunch in the Park feeds school age children, and some adults, who rely on school lunches throughout the school year during the summer while school is not in session. In the past, they have fed, on average, about 150 people each Friday at the city park. Each church in town is responsible for providing and preparing the food on specific Fridays.
In addition to the food that is served and consumed at the park, they like to send the children home with healthy food to help out throughout the week. This food is purchased using donations from corporate sponsors. The agents in our office brainstormed about how we could raise money to help and came up with our plan.
There is a store in another suburb of Des Moines that sells art and also creates interesting t-shirts. While in the store recently, one of our agents saw a t-shirt they designed that featured our town of Norwalk. To give you some background, even though our community is small, there have been a few superheroes that grew up here. Brandon Routh who played Superman in the 2006 movies, Superman Returns, grew up and graduated from our high school. Jason Momoa, who played Aquaman in the 2018 movie, and multiple other films and tv shows, grew up and graduated from high school here. Then there is Joel Hanrahan, who was a pitcher for Norwalk who went on to become a Major League pitcher. The shirt says, “They don’t come from the ocean or other planets…SUPERHEROES COME FROM NORWALK, IOWA”.
We reached out to Bozz Prints and explained what we wanted to do. They agreed to sell us 96 shirts at half-price, then we sold them at our office for the same price the store sells them, $30, then gave the profit, $15, to the Norwalk Area Ministerial Association. To be used to purchase food for the children to take home from Lunch in the Park.
It is with great excitement that we were able to conclude our Lunch in the Park fundraising efforts by exceeding our original goal of $1,440 to be raised to a total of $2,070. This was due to many terrific community members who not only bought T-shirts but also donated to this great cause.
We used every opportunity available to sell our Norwalk Superhero T-Shirts.
- Posted flyers in local businesses
- Set up table in front of local grocery store
- Put flyers in client note cards
- Pop up at chamber event
- Pop up at young professional meeting
- Pop up at new teacher luncheon
- Our Agents made sure they wore their shirts in highly visible events, and it worked.
This money not only help to feed the children and their families this summer, but the matching funds will help the ministry get a head start for next year.
Norwalk is not only where our office is located, but it is home for most of us.
Thank you for your generosity and opportunity to make a difference in our community.
A portion of every transaction fee received by EXIT Realty Corp. International is applied to its charitable fund. Through the Spirit of EXIT Dollar-for-Dollar Matching Program, EXIT offices and associates can raise money for local, approved, registered charities and apply to EXIT’s head office to have those funds matched from the company’s pool of funds. Jon and his team of professionals hoped to raise $2,000, which EXIT’s head office was proud to match, however they raised $2,070 for a total donation of $4,070 to the Norwalk Area Ministerial Association.
