Ike Gives

April 30th, 2021 by

The Ike Auto Group, including Ike Honda and VW of Marion, is committed to not only bringing you quality vehicles that you can depend on, but we are thoroughly committed to helping our community and the organizations that enhance and support the area around Marion, IL. Here are some of the charities that we have supported in the past and continue to put in the running for our quarterly support.

 

Finding Forever Animal RescueIke Auto Group presenting a donation to Finding Forever Animal Rescue

Finding Forever Animal Rescue is a nonprofit rescue that started in August of 2016 in Marion, Illinois. Our mission is to help animals in need and place them in their forever homes. They help facilitate this mission through their feline spay/neuter clinic, state required rabies vaccinations, a thrift store, where 100% of the proceeds go back to the animal rescue program, and the cheerful help of volunteers that enjoy connecting people with the pets that bring daily joy to their homes.

 

NubAbility Athletics

The NubAbility® Athletics Foundation exists to encourage, inspire, instruct limb different youth by getting them out of the stands, off the bench and into mainstream sports. Imagine the power of having a mentor who looks like you. #DontNeed2

Their goal is to “Get our kids out of the stands, off the bench, and into the game so they can excel confidently in sports and in life.”

 

This Able Veteran

This Able Veteran is a service dog organization benefitting the United States military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with proven programs to help veterans with PTSD cope successfully with the symptoms of PTSD, including depression, nightmares, and social anxiety. Their Intensive Trauma Resiliency Program incorporates service dogs trained for our unique anxiety alert and nightmare interruption aids. They are also involved in training trainers – their PTSD Service Dog Trainer Academy will help put more specially trained service dogs into partnership with veterans suffering from PTSD. They do all of this out of a desire to help protect those who gave everything to protect us and our country.

 

Foster Family Resource Center of Southern Illinois

The mission of the Foster Family Resource Center of Southern Illinois is to meet the immediate needs of foster families by providing them with the supplies and goods necessary for the foster children in their care and they offer these items to local foster families completely free of charge.

The FFRCSI “stands in the gap” for foster families, providing them — at no cost — items that all parents need: things like diapers, clothes, bedding, shoes, personal care items, and more. This is all made possible through charitable donations from individuals, companies, organizations, and foundations; fundraisers, and from the proceeds of our Children’s Resale Shop, Two Bugs and a Bean, located on Giant City Road (right in front of Kohl’s) in Carbondale.

Two Bugs and a Bean prides itself on being an upscale children’s resale boutique. Perhaps you’ve visited other resale shops, even those specializing in children’s items and the shopping experience was, in a word, disappointing: clothing crammed on racks or tossed in unorganized bins, hard-to-find prices, and staff members that are even harder to find. Two Bugs and a Bean are different, as every item is our store is clearly priced, neatly displayed in a well-organized, friendly atmosphere.

 

Fowler Bonan Foundation

​The Fowler Bonan Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, incorporated in the state of Illinois, whose primary mission is to provide clothing and shoes to low-income children thru the Clothes for SI Kids initiative and to provide hot meals to those in need thru the Heaven’s Kitchen program. The Foundation also assists, on a limited basis, families suffering temporary hardship due to disasters such as fire or illness, as well as other youth-related charitable endeavors. Our activities are presently conducted throughout Southern Illinois with Heaven’s Kitchen operating in Harrisburg and Marion. In 2020 over 600 kids and individuals were provided with full and partial wardrobes and over 17,000 meals served.

 

PAWS

PAWS is a not-for-profit 501c3 animal welfare organization dedicated to rescuing and rehoming unwanted and homeless, sometimes neglected and abused, dogs, cats, puppies and kittens. They have been doing this life saving work in Southern Illinois since 1994, and were able, in 2001, with a tremendous outpouring of support, to purchase a small building on a main thoroughfare in Anna, to create, license and open the first no-kill facility in Southern Illinois, PAWS Place Adoption Center. While in that building, they were able to take in and rehome almost 6,000 animals.

 

PAWS work is 100% funded by donations and various fundraising efforts and events, including PAWS 2nd Chance Resale store. All items are donated and sold to support the operation of the shelter. They strive to reduced overbreeding of companion animals, primarily cats and dogs, through public education and spay/neutering of all animals that come to their care. PAWS promotes spaying/neutering of all dogs and cats by educating folks on the massive overpopulation of dogs and cats and the horrible conditions that most breeder dogs must live in and endure in puppy mills or in any breeding situation.

 

Boy Scouts of America – VW Event

In 2019 VW of Marion opened on Sunday we’re normally closed, and all staff came in as volunteers to help VW of Marion employees and Troup Leaders Matt Hupe and Tony Glasper for a Merit Badge Day where local Scouts got the opportunity to earn merit badges for various subjects with custom badges for all participants. The classes offered included:

  • Automotive Maintenance Merit Badge taught by VW Certified Technicians Travis Darst and Colin Roy, and VW Master Certified Technician Tom Ford.
  • Entrepreneurship Merit Badge taught by VW General Manager Ashlee Church
  • Photography Merit Badge, taught by former VW Marketing Manager Matt Hupe
  • Salesmanship Merit Badge, taught by former Product & Technology Expert Tony Glasper
  • Weather Merit Badge, taught by a resident volunteer and meteorologist – Luke Saeger

 

Drive Bigger / Donors Choose – Teacher’s Event

In 2019 [we] partnered with Donors Choose to help fund 9 local teachers in the Carterville School District to fund their classroom projects. We provided $20 Visa Gift cards that people could win on Facebook and then select a project from Donors Choose to apply it to:

 

This is only a taste of the amazing organization that Ike Honda, as a part of the Ike Auto Group, supports, and we look forward to working with even more in the future. If you are a part of a local charity or organization or know of one that stands out in our community, let us know about them, and we look forward to adding them to the list.

Posted in Ike Gives