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by Stephen Parezo

Members of Team Fiducial taking a breather at the five-mile mark in the recent America’s Walk for Diabetes in Manassas, VA, are, from left, Marina Pino, Diane Dumas and Karin Harris.

October 17, 2005—Charitable causes come in many forms. Whether its running events, softball games, building homes, sending aid to hurricane victims or holding auctions for youth, both Fiducial company offices and franchisees have become actively involved raising funds for charitable endeavors in their local communities.

Greg Gradel, district manager of Fiducial’s Dumfries, VA, office, coordinated the participation of staff members from company offices in Manassas, Annandale, Dumfries and Lake Ridge for the America’s Walk for Diabetes held earlier this month in Manassas. Participants entered either the two- or six-mile events to help raise money through client sponsorships to help fight this disease. It’s a cause that’s very close to Gradel’s heart.

“One of my friends passed away from diabetes so I’m in tune to that disease,” said Gradel. “There are approximately 18 million people living with diabetes so we decided it would be a great experience to form our own corporate team.”

The Fiducial team raised $750 per including $250 from Gradel’s marketing budget.

“I believe part of our local marketing efforts is to create a Fiducial presence in the community to show we give back,” he said.

Glenn Rhodes, a Fiducial business advisor in Manassas, has served for almost two years as treasurer of the Prince William County branch of Habitat for Humanity that helps build affordable houses for deserving families.

“We probably build one house a year and place it in the hands of people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford housing,” said Rhodes who enjoys driving nails while working on the “builds” [projects].

Doing their part

Judy Grenfell has organized the Fiducial office’s participation in the Easter Seals Softball Marathon in Arvada, CO, for the last 15 years. This year marked the 25th annual event that drew close to 50 teams, 500 participants and raised nearly $45,000 for Easter Seals.

“It was great for camaraderie and teamwork having the whole office out there,” said Grenfell, Fiducial’s business associate of the year for 2004. “It’s good for us to work together on something other than just the great work we do for our clients.”

Grenfell says the Fiducial office wrote letters to clients asking them to help through donations and the efforts resulted in over $1,400 being raised for the Easter Seals Association. Clients easily oblige to assist in this worthwhile effort.

“It’s an easy sell for us,” she said. “We’ve been doing it for so long it’s part of the office tradition.”

Cissie Megyesy, director of special events for Colorado Easter Seals, remarked that there’s never any doubt that Grenfell will help put a team together to compete in the tournament.

“They are always one of our top fundraising teams and have been for years,” said Megyesy. “We reward for raising money and you win by how much you fundraise. Judy’s a good motivator but the whole office has to do their part.”

According to Megyesy, raising funds gets more difficult each year since there are over 17,000 non-profits in Colorado.

“They’ve [Fiducial] have stuck with us,” she said. “It’s people like them who make it happen.”

Showing support

In Colorado Springs, franchisee Rocky St. John is actively involved in assisting his local church and its ministries. His church sent much needed items to Hurricane Katrina victims along with $26,000 in donations. The church also helped build a hospital in Mexico and partnered with Vision Quest to help fix broken sanitary facilities, doors and windows for families in the Dominican Republic.

Like many unselfishly involved in charitable pursuits, St. John is not looking for any pats on the back.

“We don’t make any fanfare about it,” he said. “Just giving back to the community is enough.”

Larry Recor, recently named Fiducial’s 2005 Franchisee of the Year at the company’s Fifth Annual Convention in San Francisco, is also no stranger to donating to worthwhile charities in Boonville, NY. He recently served as co-chairman of the 50th Annual Boonville Kiwanis Auction to fund sports activities and sponsor school scholarships for area youth.

“I was involved with Kiwanis before I was involved with my own business,” said Recor. “Our firm does all of their accounting work at no charge. Obviously you get good public relations from it but the primary objective is to support the community.”

Recor finds that businesses that help raise funds for charities do have their hearts in the right place.

“Most of them do it because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Karen Smith works with her husband, Sam, a Fiducial franchisee in Middletown, MD, and says they have been involved both personally and professionally in assisting charities since they’ve been in business for the last 13 years.

They donate funds to assist the Middletown High School band and advertise in its sports programs. Sam serves as president of the Middletown Business Association and also gives seminars at their church which addresses the elderly and taxes.

“Community awareness is the main thing we get out of it,” said Karen. “The fact that we have a business allows us to do more.”

Stephen Parezo is the Media Manager for Fiducial.

Whatever your small business needs, your Fiducial tax and financial professional can analyze your situation and recommend an appropriate action plan. To locate a Fiducial office nearest you on fiducial.com, see the Zip Code Locator located in the upper right hand corner of the page. Do you have a particular topic that we should be writing about that can help your business? Please send your suggestions to: stephen.parezo@fiducial.com.

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