The Annual Drive for Life event will be hosted on September 14 at the Raddison Hotel in Kalamazoo. Tune into this week’s episode of Money, I’m Home, as Lynne is joined by Zeigler Auto Group Chief of Staff Matt Thomas and Consumers’ Indirect Relationship Manager Heather Gould to discuss the event and what it means for the charities in our community.

 

[music]

0:00:06.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson from Consumer’s Credit Union. We are here bringing you a podcast. We’ve got experts here today. They’re going to talk about visuals that we all love, and it’s our cars and maybe a little bit of, heart too. Welcome in Matt Thomas. Matt is with Zeigler Auto Group and Heather Gould. What’s your actual title, Heather?

0:00:29.4 Heather Gould (HG): I am the Indirect Relationship Manager.

0:00:32.0 LJJ: Now what that means to you as a member or to those who are listening, that means that if you are going into Zeigler Auto Group and you walk in and you need a new car, we’re going to help you get that car here at Consumers Credit Union. What a partnership we have had for so many years, Matt.

0:00:48.0 Matt Thomas (MT): No doubt, Lynne. It has been a very long time that we’ve been partners. We appreciate all the lending you do for us, for all of our facilities, all of our stores across all the states too.

0:00:58.3 LJJ: Tell us a little bit about yourself. When did you get into Zeigler Auto Group? And then we’re going to get into a really great event we’ve got coming up together.

0:01:06.1 MT: Yeah. So, I’ve been with Zeigler for 10 years now, and I got into it running our Lowell store, which is actually our original store back in 1975, and so I was able to come there. I started in January, and the rest is history. About seven years into it, Aaron said, “Hey, we’d love to have you come work at our executive team.” And I’ve been doing that for the last couple years, and it’s a lot of fun. We’ve expanded so much in 10 years. You think of where we’re at. 35 locations, four states, and 78 franchises is busy.

0:01:37.2 LJJ: Here’s what is so interesting. When you say states, you are across the country?

0:01:41.9 MT: We are, yeah. Aaron’s vision was to just continue to expand, and every chance we got, that’s what we do. And yeah, our latest acquisitions, were in the wonderful state of Wisconsin. We have four beautiful brand-new facilities out there, and the team members are outstanding. We’re over 2300 team members now across four states.

0:02:00.6 LJJ: 2300?

0:02:00.7 MT: Yeah, that’s right.

0:02:01.2 LJJ: That is awesome. Congratulations. And I’ll tell you, all, 2,300 of them have hearts of gold, which is why we’re here today. Because we’re talking about something that’s very near and dear to our hearts here at Consumers. But Heather, you really do drive this. And It’s a program that is so focused on charitable giving. Tell us a little bit about our partnership together.

0:02:24.0 HG: Absolutely, so we’ve been doing indirect lending for the Zeigler Auto Group for 20 years. It’s a funny story. I met Dan Scheid when he first started at Zeigler’s as the CFO, and I was the first rep that he had ever sat down and talked to. So, he and I have a very special relationship. We’ve just been doing great business for all these years. They have this event that they’ve been doing. I think this is their 41st…

0:02:50.8 MT: 41st.

0:02:51.6 HG: Year. I’ve been to 18 of the events. It’s Drive for Life, Drive Foundation. I remember the first one that I was at. It was actually at the BMW showroom on Stadium Drive. We were all in the showroom, and then the food was in the service bay. And it was so much fun. We were all dressed fancy, and we just had the best time and raised wonderful funds for the American Cancer Society. And since then, it’s very much evolved. There’s more charitable companies that they support, and it’s just wonderful.

0:03:29.7 LJJ: And Matt, you have seen this grow in the amount of time that you have been there, and I have had the pleasure of attending the event. It’s joyful. That’s what I have to say.

0:03:38.8 MT: We want the event to be a night of fun. We’re obviously trying to tackle something that’s a tough item for anybody and everybody that we know. Almost everybody that I know has been affected by cancer. And so, part of our charity is to cancer and to cancer research. And with the American Cancer Society, they’ve been a partner with us since the beginning of this. But now we’ve been able to expand because of all of the great partners like you who have come alongside of us for so many years. We’ve been able to expand beyond just American Cancer Society. Now we’re over 40 charities that are local that we’re able to help and partner with. And that’s what our driving force is. How do we empower local charities and organizations to do their mission better each and every day?

0:04:19.2 LJJ: Heather, when you see now that it has grown to 40 charities, and Consumers, we try really hard to make sure that we’re touching a lot of communities at the same time. Such a great culture fit. You must be really proud to have been involved so long.

0:04:34.4 HG: I am absolutely proud of it, and it is a great event. I look forward to it every year. A lot of thought goes into it. Just with the simplicity of what am I going to wear…

[laughter]

0:04:48.0 HG: This is…

0:04:48.1 LJJ: That’s not simple. This is important.

[laughter]

0:04:50.9 HG: Everybody, that is, everybody in the Kalamazoo area, is at this event. There’s a lot of business partners, a lot of friends, family that go to this event. It’s always great to see everyone. And the best part is, you’re there raising money for these charitable events that need the support. They need the funds to make their organizations work. It’s very exciting. I’m so excited. I can’t wait to find out who the guest speaker is this year.

0:05:18.9 LJJ: That’s a big doing.

:05:19.2 HG: That’s a big…

0:05:21.6 LJJ: It has secret.

0:05:21.8 MT: It’s secret, though.

0:05:22.6 LJJ: You don’t say it… Don’t say it out loud.

[laughter]

0:05:24.5 MT: We typically announce that, probably by the end of July. Is what we always hold up…

0:05:28.3 LJJ: And do you know, already?

0:05:29.7 MT: It’s a secret.

0:05:30.6 LJJ: He knows already.

[laughter]

0:05:32.9 MT: It’s a secret. But we always announce it, usually at the same time every year. It’s just a lot of fun for that night. There’s so much to do, but it doesn’t happen without partners and sponsors. We had over 150 sponsors last year. So, when you think of that, and we keep adding each year because people give us great ideas. And last year was our first year for the red carpet, live at Red Carpet. We had this fun time.

0:05:54.0 HG: That made me so excited.

[laughter]

0:05:55.4 HG: I’ve always thought about it.

0:05:57.3 MT: Each year we’re looking, and we go, how do we just make it a little bit more fun for people so when they come out, we can just celebrate together.

0:06:03.9 LJJ: Tell us a little bit about, and I don’t want to bring up COVID because it’s something that we’re trying to all say, “Okay, it’s over and let’s keep moving on.” But honestly, that impacted the American Cancer Society and people who have cancer in getting the treatments that they need. Like what I have heard is there’s such a delay or was, and that must be critical to you to help say, “Look at you guys, let’s keep fighting the good fight and find that research to get a cure.”

0:06:32.7 MT: Absolutely. We just had a meeting with them a week ago, and we were talking about the things that the new technologies and they’re doing a new research right now with the University of Michigan and just all the things that they’re doing to try to speed up the process. because they did, they got set back a little bit during that time. But it’s amazing how much technology has advanced already. And there’s a new, if you listen to our podcast is coming out. There’s a new technology that came out where they can detect another type of cancer sooner and faster. And it speeds up about four years of that process. So, it’s amazing just to hear from them all the different things that they keep doing and coming out with. And the nice thing is, again, we’ve been able to expand just beyond them, which is so nice. Last year was our 40th year and we celebrated so much and we record night again, just really, just crushed it that night.

0:07:23.6 MT: And this year we’re going to try to set the bar a little bit higher and have some more fun. And the whole night is full of just amazing activities. So, it’s Thursday, September 14th. It starts at 5:30. So Radisson Plaza Hotel. We’ve had it there for I think 13 years now. I’m trying to remember back how long we started there. And it’s just a night of fun. Matter of fact, your members can purchase a ticket. They’re $300 and you can go on, driveforlifefoundation.org and you can purchase a ticket and, or you can email Beth Kaward [email protected] and she’ll help walk you through it and you can enjoy that night as well. There’s silent auction items. There’s an unbelievable reception, that’s at the beginning, we’re going to keep the red carpet again live. We streamline that so anybody can see it. And then the gala kicks off and it is nonstop front from that point on. And then we do live auction. That is epic items.

0:08:16.3 LJJ: It is epic. It’s awesome.

0:08:17.6 MT: There are no doubt.

0:08:18.7 LJJ: Epic auction items too.

0:08:20.7 MT: Yes.

0:08:20.9 HG: Very much so. [laughter]

0:08:22.3 MT: Yes, there are one of a kind items that you can get anywhere else.

0:08:26.0 LJJ: Vacation homes.

0:08:27.5 MT: It is amazing. And we have so much [laughter]

0:08:29.5 LJJ: Yacht experience.

0:08:30.5 MT: Yes.

0:08:32.9 LJJ: NASCAR experience.

0:08:33.8 HG: Yes.

0:08:34.7 LJJ: You name it, they’ve got it. It’s one-of-a-kind stuff and the best part is that it supports the organizations and you get to do something fun.

0:08:41.0 LJJ: So Matt, Heather, you guys have raised an amazing amount of money.

0:08:44.9 MT: We have, we are over $5 million that we’ve raised now.

0:08:47.9 LJJ: $5 million?

0:08:48.5 LJJ: Food drive for life over the many, many years. But it started at $1. It started at $1 with Harold many years ago. And then it just kept evolving and growing and more people jumped in and now, yeah, we’ve surpassed the $5 million mark. Which is just amazing, because that’s just a money that goes back for local charities and local organizations. And again, we’re honored to be a part of it. That’s all there is to it.

0:09:11.3 LJJ: Well, I know that you also have your own podcast, so tell us a little bit about that at Ziegler.

0:09:16.4 MT: We do, it’s called the Driving Vision Podcast. So we put that out every single week. That’s an external podcast and you can find it on Spotify or Apple iTunes. And the reality is, it’s a lot of fun. We try to talk about things that are big vision items and Sam D’Arc hosts that. What a great podcast that is too.

0:09:32.3 LJJ: Our own CEO Scott Sylvester was just recently on it. It’s interesting as we look at, especially what we’ve heard about… I’m getting into the car industry now here. We’ve got supply chain issues. We had heard, now everybody’s talking about EV and should be switching over and the industry’s doing well.

0:09:50.7 MT: The industry we’re doing very well. Absolutely. The industry itself is doing well. The only people that aren’t doing well are the people that aren’t stocking cars. If you have a great team like we do, it all starts with great teams and we have great teams across all of our states and all of our dealerships. And that’s what really helps. And then we have great partnerships with the manufacturers. So, we have a few stores that we’re still struggling just like anybody else, but most of them just because of the new car. But what we did is, we supplemented that with used cars. And so that’s where we needed partners like you to be able to say, look, we’re going to keep this thing going. We’re going to keep taking care of the customer that walks on our lot or that emails us or picks up the phone. So, we’re going to deliver the ultimate automotive experience to every customer that comes in. And you need inventory to do that. And then we need great partners like you. And that’s how we make it happen.

0:10:36.3 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you this, you not only deliver the ultimate customer experience, you deliver the ultimate event experience. September 14th, don’t forget and listen those tickets do sell out. So, we want to make sure that you have plenty of time to go online and get those tickets. At Consumers, we will have on our website a location that you can just hit and get ’em to. So this’ll be great. Heather and Matt, thank you so much for being with us. It has just been a delight.

0:11:02.9 LJJ: Thank you.

0:11:03.4 MT: Thank you so much for having us. We appreciate it.

0:11:05.4 LJJ: And hey, thank you for listening today. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. Thank you, Jake Esselink for your production skills. And everyone have a very safe and fun week.

[music]