For the last several years, I’ve had the honor and privilege of being asked to help a charity started by my former boss at (Pete Grasso, plug your ears) Golfdom, the fine humanitarian Larry Aylward.
Larry and a bunch of his friends started a charity called Santa’s Helper in 1988. They raise money each November, and then use the money to purchase gifts for children near Larry’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. Since 1988, Santa’s Helper has provided gifts to more than 3,000 children. This year, Larry and his pals want to raise enough money to deliver Christmas presents to 200 children.
This is truly God’s work, and I admire Larry tremendously for his ongoing efforts this time of year. He’s a good man with an enormous heart, and I will again be supporting his charity with my own donation (donations, by the way, are tax deductible). It’s my favorite because Larry and his friends purchase and wrap the gifts themselves, meaning that there is absolutely no overhead. That’s how I know that every penny I give goes to purchasing the gifts for these needy children.
I would ask all of you to consider helping Larry and his friends if you can. If you want more information, You can reach Larry at lawrenceaylward@yahoo.com for more details, and thanks in advance for any support you might give.
If you’d like to contact Santa’s Helper outside of Larry, please call them directly at 330-723-2136 or 330-253-9277 — and let me know if you’ve helped. You can also send any donations directly to:
PO Box 4704
Akron, Ohio 44310
The deadline for donations are Dec. 5, so please help if you can.
It would mean a lot to me, to Larry and — most importantly — to the kids in Akron.
Thanks, in advance, for your time, attention and support — and I guess I should add, “Happy Holidays.”
Eric Scherzinger of ScherZinger Pest Control dropped me a line to let me know about a recent project the company participated in to take care of bed bugs at The Drop Inn Center, the city’s largest homeless shelter that houses nearly 300 people per night when it is at maximum capacity. It also has an alcohol and drug rehab area where guests can stay longer so they can receive treatment for their addictions.
For those of you who aren’t aware,Cincinnatiis the bed bug cradle in Ohio. These bloodsucking menaces are slowly but surely making their way toward me (as I noted earlier this week), and I’m really not happy about it — but I digress. Back to the work of ScherZinger:
Eric says the problem at The Drop Inn Center was so bad that when he was downtown as a technician, a homeless man (a regular visitor at the center) told him that ScherZinger needed to treat the center because he would rather sleep on the streets than stay there because he was routinely eaten up by the bugs.
The Drop Inn Center then contacted the company, and company president Steve Scherzinger asked him employees if they would be willing to to donate their time if he would be willing to donate the product on two different Saturdays. Everyone enthusiastically agreed, and they took care of the problem (along with training the center’s employees so the problem could action when new problems arose). But in addition to vising the center’s problem, the project brought the team together. Eric wrote:
It was a great opportunity for Scherzinger and our employees to give back to those less fortunate. This event not only brought a sense of camaraderie to our team, but pride among our employees that they were able to give back to the community with their skills.
Many PMPs get into the holiday spirit by an additional service for their customers, but I’ve never heard of this one. I have to ask my friends in Florida: Is this a common service in your state?
Congratulations to VIP Pest Control in Tampa, Fla., and Vicki Hutto, the owner, in particular, on this innovative add-on service.
But perhaps we can work out a deal: When I’m dealing with 12 feet of snow in the middle of January, I would be happy to send Hutto some so her customers can get a taste of the real thing. In return, I’d ask her to send me a little bit of that Florida sunshine at the same time of year. Do we have a deal?
Wow. Three feet of bat guano in the attic before the homeowner called a professional. I can’t figure out how a problem gets to that point.. But kudos to Charles Krise and Tegwyn Hughes from Wildlife Pest Control in Bangor, Pa., for taking care of the problem the right way.
I don’t know how many of you watched WKRP in Cincinnati, but it was one of the funniest shows from 1978-1982 on television. Perhaps my favorite episode ever was the Thanksgiving episode, where the general manager of the radio station gets the bright idea to drop turkeys from a helicopter at the local mall to promote the station. I couldn’t find the clip where Les Nessman describes the turkeys falling from the sky and hitting the ground (think the famous Hindenburg explosion, but funny), but I did find video of perhaps the greatest line in TV history:
This sounds like a job for you. I truly shouldn’t laugh, but the way PMP Tom Bannister, owner of ATB Pest Control in March, England, describes the potential invasion of the city by rats stands in stark contrast to the reaction of the public officials, who seem to be taking the pending apocalypse with typical British sang-froid. Clearly, the council members are not the victims of the rat attacks.
Since Bobby is busy doing such great work with New York, perhaps we can find someone else to help the city out. Dale Kaukeinen, anyone?
In Neptune City, N.J., Bill Crowley of Crowley’s Termite & Pest Services gets a nice feature on his company’s move into Christmas Decor to help his company get through what we refer to in the northern climes as the shoulder season. This is a popular way for companies in the North and Midwest to get through the cold winters.
Anyone else out there have an interesting add-on business they want me to know about? Please leave a comment here or drop me a line at fandorka@questex.com.
