Chief Operations Officer at Zeigler Auto Group, Sam D’arc and Consumers Indirect Sales Manager Heather Gould join host Lynne Jarman-Johnson to discuss the upcoming Drive for Life event and which charities will be supported this year.

Listen to our podcast on the go! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode.

 

[music]

0:00:07.1 Lynne Jarman-Johnson: Money, I’m Home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we do have it all. And I’ll tell you what we’ve got today, it is such a longstanding partnership. It’s called Drive for Life with the Zeigler Auto Group. I’m telling you, you guys have turned this into the most fun event. Sam D’Arc is our Chief Operations Officer with Zeigler Auto Group, and Heather Gould, she’s on the road for us here at Consumers Credit Union as our indirect sales manager. Now, what does that mean? It means she’s out working with car dealerships to help you get your loans.

0:00:40.5 Sam D’Arc: Yeah.

0:00:41.1 LJJ: Thank you guys.

0:00:41.2 Heather Gould: Yes, that is correct.

0:00:42.5 LJJ: Thanks for being with us today.

0:00:43.5 SD: Thank you for having us.

0:00:44.2 HG: Thank you. Yeah.

0:00:45.2 LJJ: Well, I’m going to start off, Sam, with you. And I’m going to say 42 years you guys have had the Drive for Life.

0:00:51.5 SD: Yes.

0:00:51.9 LJJ: It started as a dollar ticket.

0:00:54.0 SD: Yes.

0:00:55.1 LJJ: And you gave to the American Cancer Society. Let’s fast forward 42 years and look what we have now.

0:01:02.2 SD: Yes. Now, I was not there in the first year. I would tell you if you minus my age by 42 years, I was a little younger than I am today. But what an event to have started so humbly and so small, and then you apply the vision of Aaron Zeigler, Harold Zeigler, the entire Zeigler family and then the incredible community that is Kalamazoo. You put those two things together and a desire to give back. And I don’t think there’s another event like it in all of Kalamazoo or this area.

0:01:29.9 LJJ: Well, it’s a fun event. So, if you’ve not attended, you can go online right now to get your tickets to go there. Heather, you have been involved for so many years, and Consumers is a really proud partner to do this. It’s not just the American Cancer Society, there’s so many organizations that we support now. Heather, what was your passion to get involved?

0:01:50.2 HG: Let’s see. I’ve been going to the cancer benefit or the Drive for Life benefit for about 24 years. It is a great fun event. The organizations that they support touch my heart, all local, American Cancer Society, the Cheff Center, they have Back to Shoe, I think.

0:02:13.7 SD: Yes. First Day Shoe Fund. It’s one of my favorite charities.

0:02:14.3 HG: Yes. The First Day Shoe Fund, Salvation Army, jeez, that’s just a few of them that I can think of off the top of my head. But it’s such a great community event. They always have wonderful, great guest speakers. It’s good wholesome fun, and you’re giving to such a great cause.

0:02:34.4 LJJ: Well, Sam, this year, I know the speaker is somebody that’s near and dear to my heart, Go Green. Because he’s also a big tiger and can’t you just see him raising his arms?

0:02:45.2 SD: Yes.

0:02:46.4 LJJ: And when he ran the bases.

0:02:48.1 SD: Yeah, no. It’s going to be an exciting event. It’s going to be … It’s always an exciting night. In fact, having been to so many events, Heather, I’d be curious who was your favorite speaker? That’s one thing within the Zeigler Auto Group, we always compare notes on who … This year obviously, could be the best or a best, but as you think about the past. You’ve been there over two decades, who’s your favorite?

[overlapping conversation]

0:03:06.5 HG: Yeah. I would say… Yeah, for sure. Kirk Cousins was great. Mel Tucker was very passionate and great.

0:03:15.1 SD: Tom Izzo.

0:03:16.1 HG: Tom Izzo. Come on, I think I’m following an MSU theme here.

0:03:19.9 LJJ: Yeah, you are all of a sudden. Kirk Gibsons …

0:03:21.6 HG: Go Green. So, there’s been so many.

0:03:22.7 LJJ: Kirk Gibsons this year would be so exciting.

0:03:24.8 SD: Yes.

0:03:25.0 HG: Yes. So, there’s been so many. They’re there to speak and they’re so kind. They’ll take pictures with you; they’ll come out on the floor and introduce themselves to you. It’s really … It’s kind of a starstruck night. It is really a neat event.

0:03:39.2 SD: Yeah.

0:03:39.9 LJJ: Well, one of the things I know that also happens, there’s really cool raffle that takes place that you don’t have to attend. So, if you can’t attend the event September 24 …

0:03:49.0 SD: Correct.

0:03:49.9 LJJ: Then make sure that you grab those raffle tickets. We’re going to give y’all that information near the end here. Zeigler Auto Group has grown substantially. You must be just thrilled to see what’s happening with the industry. And tell me your take on, especially now you’re going across the country.

0:04:07.4 SD: It’s neat. Aaron Zeigler, he’s the president and CEO, he’s an incredible businessperson. He’s got an incredible mind. He is super aggressive, wants to grow the brand, has wanted to grow it since he took over in early 2000s from his dad. His dad started it, and he’s just completely blown it up. He sees Kalamazoo as home, this will always be our corporate headquarters, he would tell you. And he just wants to grow and continue to grow. So last year we added six stores to the portfolio. Two in Indiana, one in Lafayette, which it’s at the Subaru factory in Lafayette, Indiana right next to Purdue there. A Subaru point in Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is a brand-new market for us. And then added four franchises in Holland, Michigan, right there on the shore of Lake Michigan. A beautiful and iconic place if you’ve been there for the Tulip Festival. I don’t know if you have or not.

0:05:02.4 HG: Absolutely.

0:05:02.5 SD: I was part of the acquisition team, and we went in and installed everything, and it was right during the Tulip Festival. And I would tell you, you can’t get around Holland, Michigan during the Tulip Festival, but the excitement and the energy that is in that town and the way we were greeted as an auto group there has been fun. And it’s always, I would say, most exciting to me to see how employees embrace the Zeigler culture, the Drive for Life being just one component of it. This ability to give back in a unique and interesting way is fun.

0:05:37.1 LJJ: Heather, I think that brings up a really good point about partnerships and culture. And Consumers has been a partner with the Zeigler Auto Group for Drive for Life. Heather, you are out helping our members with some awesome availability of car loans and getting, making sure, that the dealers are happy too. You’ve got to be just thrilled with looking back at the history of all of this.

0:06:00.3 HG: Absolutely. Starting here, it’ll be 13 years for me at Consumers Credit Union. And when we started, we were doing about a million dollars in auto loans, and today we’re averaging over 40 million in auto loans. So pretty exciting. The dealers love doing business with Consumers Credit Union because we make it so easy for our members to just walk into a dealership and let them know that they’re a member of ours, and the dealers take very good care of them, and they secure their financing through us, and everybody’s happy.

0:06:36.4 LJJ: Speaking of happy, when you look at how deep this Drive for Life has become and how many different impact charities that there are, that’s to me, that I think mind-blowing. How is it that you as a team determine, okay, here’s the charities this year, has it … I know it’s always been the American Cancer Society, but then how do you decide the new ones that are up and coming? I saw a be nice. Mental Health Foundation.

0:07:06.0 SD: Yeah. It’s interesting, going back to something Heather said just a moment ago, and you said as a segue, you think about Consumers Credit Union, you think about Zeigler Auto Group, they’re two organizations that are dominant in this community that truly want to give back in an interesting and meaningful way. You think about Aaron and the Zeigler family, he wants to give back, and Consumers Credit Union wants to give back as well, so I think it’s a great partnership. So, you asked about charities, how do we pick those charities? First Day Shoe Fund is one. Have you done the shoe fitting?

0:07:35.9 HG: I have not.

0:07:36.7 SD: So, First Day Shoe Fund is one charity that benefits from Drive for Life. It is awesome. It’s run by one lady, two ladies, I believe, and their whole mission is to pair shoes with kids that are in need of shoes on that literal first day of school. And so, she goes out and buys tens of thousands of shoes every year. Can you imagine? She sources them all. She goes onto a website, she buys the shoes, she sources them, she drives around to the different schools. And there’s a great process to make sure that the kid that receives the shoe not only is safe ’cause you’ve got to do that in the school environment today, but also there’s a great process to make sure that the shoe that that child gets fits, it’s not two sizes off. And it’s something that lights them up and excites them.

0:08:22.6 SD: And as small as that is, and it kind of seems small, at first when I heard about it, I was like, shoes, really? She made the point. She said, a lot of kids get hand-me-down shoes that don’t fit, and what helps you have a better day than a pair of shoes that fit? So, you ask about how do we pick the charities that benefit from this, I think it’s an incredibly thoughtful process about how do we put money in funds in the hands of people that are truly making a difference? And First Day Shoe Fund is an example. You mentioned Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center. My daughter is a huge fan of horses, she rode horses during COVID. A connection between, in her case, a teenage girl and a horse and an ability to light up and be fulfilled in that relationship is unequaled. And Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center does that. It takes kids that are challenged socially and in other ways and pairs them with a horse and gives them a skill of being able to ride a horse. Who can change the world more than someone in that situation. So, it’s a careful process.

0:09:26.4 LJJ: And it’s all about giving and connecting. Like you mentioned with our members, Heather. It really is about taking the mission of our credit union and saying we can make a difference in the lives of not only our neighbors but our members.

0:09:40.0 SD: Yeah.

0:09:40.2 HG: Absolutely.

0:09:41.6 LJJ: Well, thank you so much. Okay. For all of you who are going to attend now, because I know you are, so Drive for Life, it takes place every year. This year it’s September 23rd. Mark your calendars. Such a great time. Drive for Life is the website, just look it up or go to consumercu.org and we’re going to have all that information there as well. Thank you so much, Sam and Heather.

0:10:01.2 SD: Thank you.

0:10:01.4 LJJ: Everybody have a great week. I’m Lynne Jarman Johnson, Money, I’m Home, with Consumers Credit Union.