I love the start of the year. After spending the past few weeks working through the many deadlines that come with winding down the past year and clearing my desk, it’s time to start looking towards the coming year.
It is also a time to reflect on how fortunate we are.
Family, friends, a warm home to return to at the end of the day, a well-stocked pantry. The foundations of my life and of the lives of most of us in this industry are beyond the reach of many around the world. At this time of year, it serves us all well to remember those who aren’t as fortunate.
This industry has always done so much for those who live with less. Canada’s automotive dealers have always been willing to give of their time and their financial resources to help others. It strikes me that dealers bring the same entrepreneurial drive to their community support that they do to their businesses. There are plenty of examples, and we love to share them.
Consider one from this past year.
The RBC Automotive Finance team organized a dealer contest called Play for the Plaid to support Free the Children, a youth empowerment organization. Dealers paid $100 each for a chance to win a VIP trip to the 2015 RBC Heritage (a PGA Tour event) in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. However, the real winners of Play for the Plaid are the children of Rongena, Kenya. All of the proceeds from this contest were used to help provide education and high-quality health care in a very poor community in the Maasai Mara region in Africa.
In total, RBC and the participating dealers raised $45,000 for Free the Children.
RBC will be planning another installment of this contest for 2015. Look for more information in future issues of Canadian auto dealer. Send us other examples of community support and charitable efforts. This industry produces many good news stories, and we want to hear them.
The start of every new year is a remarkable time in the automotive industry, and we will be driving at full speed. The first two months of the year will find us at auto shows in Detroit, Montreal and Toronto. We’ll be in San Francisco for the NADA convention. We’ll be front and center in Toronto at the third annual CADA Summit, listening to some of this industry’s most important figures discussing some of our biggest issues and opportunities.
We’ll have our journalists and our video team out in force at these events, so look for extensive coverage of these events in the printed magazine and online.
So let’s get started.
