Special contest for dealers helps provide better educational opportunities for youth in Rongena, Kenya
Students in Rongena, Kenya who were helped by Canadian auto dealers.
More than 700 auto dealers from across Canada helped raise more than $45,000 to support and improve the lives of children in Kenya, through an innovative and fun contest, Play for the Plaid, that was sponsored by RBC Automotive Finance.
“It was a win-win,” says Arash Askarian, Dealer Principal with Legacy Cars, based in Surrey, B.C. “It’s nice to see the banks taking the initiative.” Askarian says the RBC campaign motivated his dealership to get more involved in other local charities too. “It feels great.”
The Play for the Plaid contest ran between July and October 2014, and some dealers could win a grand prize that included an all-inclusive VIP trip to the 2015 RBC Heritage in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina for dealer principals.
To enter the contest, dealers had to pay a $100 entry fee — that was a donation to Free the Children — and book more volume with RBC Automotive Finance during the contest eligibility period. In addition to the grand prize, there were monthly prizes.
CHILDREN WERE WINNERS
But the real winners were the children of Rongena, Kenya. The proceeds from the Play for the Plaid contest helped build schools and provide educational opportunities for young people in a very poor community of about 2,000 people in the Maasai Mara region in southwest Kenya, Africa.
Mike Dobbins, Executive Vice President, Personal Financing Products with RBC went a step further and made the journey to the community in Kenya with his family and two teenage sons. There he witnessed first hand the impact the donations from Canada’s auto dealers were making.
In an interview, Dobbins had high praise for the dealers, and recognized how impactful their donations were for local people. “The auto dealers throughout Canada have just been fantastic,” says Dobbins. “We had a minimum that folks could contribute, and many contributed much more than the minimum. This went a long way to helping families, and children overseas in Kenya.”
Dobbins got to see how providing education, clean water and accessible facilities can help villagers become more self-sufficient. “It’s a phenomenal experience, that these simple things that exist in Canada readily, can make such a change in their lives. $45,000 in Kenya goes an awful long way. I can’t overstate the impact that our auto dealers have had.”
For Dobbins, it was a transformative experience for himself — and also for his teenage sons, who returned home energized and even more eager to continue to find ways to help out. “They are much more aware socially. They got to roll their sleeves up and help with all dimensions of these projects, whether it be carrying water or building schools,” says Dobbins. “It makes it very real and it makes you want to do more.”
A school house that money raised from Canadian auto dealers in an innovative RBC Automotive
Finance contest helped build in Rongena, Kenya.
Dobbins says he’ll never forget the solidarity and teamwork he witnessed, particularly among the girls in the schools. “It was remarkable to me how grateful they are,” says Dobbins. “They are so smart, and so dedicated to their studies and so dedicated to helping each other.” He says they were holding and hands and smiling, and showed incredible unity. “It gives you very high hopes for what they will be able to achieve, and how they will be able to pay it forward.”
Dobbins also appeared in a video now hosted on YouTube shot in Kenya featuring Marc Kielburger, co-founder of Free the Children in which he thanked dealers for their support. “RBC has had a relationship with Free the Children going back several years,” says Dobbins. “We’ve had a lot of good experiences with them.”
Free the Children is an international charity and educational partner that works domestically and internationally to empower and enable youth to
be agents of change.
Canadian auto dealer talked with Sarah MacIndoe, Director, International Programs, Free The Children, about the RBC contest and about the programs Canadian dealers helped support.
MacIndoe says RBC has partnered for several years with Free the Children, and they also support the organization’s We Days social movement in Canada. “They have been an incredible, incredible supporter of Free the Children,” says MacIndoe.
Free the Children implements an adopt the village program, to remove the barriers to education and empower communities to break the cycle of poverty. MacIndoe says the money Canadian dealers raised went towards constructing classrooms and providing classroom supplies.
“I’m such a strong believer in everyone can make a difference. Small or big, together we can create change. And ultimately that’s what this campaign did for the community of Rongena,” says MacIndoe, adding that 90 per cent of all money raised goes directly to the communities, and only 10 per cent for administration costs for the charity.
MacIndoe says she was also pleased that senior leaders from RBC visited the communities. “We really want our stakeholders and donors to be part of the process and to be able to see the tangible change they are creating,” says MacIndoe, adding that dealers, their staff and anyone else can continue to get involved with Free the Children, even after this particular campaign ends.
Another dealer whose dealership took part in the RBC contest is Larry Pattinson, President of JP Motor Sales in Burlington, Ont. and a retired police sergeant for Halton Region.
“It’s a fantastic story,” says Pattinson. “If our $45,000 went down there, and that does a lot of things — imagine if it was $140,000 we could give,” he says.
Pattinson says dealers sometimes get a bad rap from the public, yet are such big community supporters. His dealership, for example, gives away a van — and one fully loaded with food — on Christmas Eve each year to a needy family. “I wish other dealers would reach out and do that in their community.”
The 47th RBC Heritage will take place April 13-19, 2015 at the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island.
Visit the website at www.freethechildren.com for more information.
