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The 2023 Subaru Love Promise Community Commitment Award
We've been nationally recognized for our dedication to our community and the Subaru Love Promise.
We're honored to receive the 2023 Subaru Love Promise Community Commitment Award. This award nationally recognizes Subaru retailers who are making the world a better place while demonstrating an outstanding commitment to supporting passions and causes in local communities. These efforts are focused in important areas such as the environment, community, health, education, and pets.
What is the Subaru Love Promise?
Subaru and our retailers believe in making the world a better place and the Subaru Love Promise is our vision of respecting all people. This is our commitment to show love and respect to our customers and to work to make a positive impact in the world.
How is Subaru South Blvd dedicated locally to the Love Promise?
Our Love Promise can be seen in various partnerships with local charities and non-profits. We're grateful for the opportunity, not only to be a part of our community, but to serve it as well.
CMPD Animal Care and Control, Charlotte Black Dogs
Charlotte Wildlife Stewards, Just Water 4 Haiti, TerraCycle, Innovation Barn - Envision Charlotte
Sterling Elementary School, Montclaire Elementary School, Sterling Elementary School, Sedgefield Middle School
Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays, Salvation Army Boys and Girls Clubs, Salvation Army Center of Hope, Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina
Partners 4 New Hope, Inc, The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of NC, OneBlood, BeTheMatch.Org
Love Promise Stories from Subaru South Blvd
Subaru and Subaru South Blvd believe in making a positive impact on the communities in which we live and work. We uphold that belief through our Love Promise Community Commitment. Every month, we select inspiring stories from customers and partners from around our area who strive to support our collective commitment and feature them here
Sharing the Love to Fight Food Insecurity - Whitney M
Subaru of America, Inc. and Subaru South Blvd presented a check for $79,491 to Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays, a local beneficiary in the 2022 Subaru Share the Love® Event. In its 15th year, Subaru’s signature philanthropic event has donated over $256 Million to more than 1,700 charity partners nationwide. Through the 2022 Subaru Share the Love Event the automaker and its retailers donated a combined $29.1 million to charities, with $20.7 million donated by Subaru of America and $8.4 million donated by Subaru retailers. From mid-November through the end of the calendar year, with every new Subaru purchased or leased, Subaru donated $250 to each customer’s choice of charities*. For 2022, SOA selected the four national charities: ASPCA®, Make-A-Wish®, Meals on Wheels America and National Park Foundation. Subaru retailers could also elect to add a local charity and Subaru South Blvd in Charlotte selected Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays its hometown charity and matched SOA’s contribution for each new car sold during the event. The check for $79,491 was presented to Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays by Eric Swanson and Matt Seiler of Subaru of America; Bill Musgrave, Gary Porter and Whitney Marti, all of Subaru South Blvd in Charlotte. Accepting the check on behalf of Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays was Tina Postel, CEO. “We could not be more thrilled to have been selected by Subaru South Blvd. as their local Hometown Charity partner for the 2022 Share the Love Event,” said Tina Postel, CEO of Loaves & Fishes/Friendship Trays. “This tremendous gift translates directly into hundreds of families breaking bread together this very night. And just today, another 500 homebound individuals received a healthy meal and a friendly hello through our Meals on Wheels program. This would not be possible without strong community partners such as Subaru.” This is the sixth year that Subaru South Blvd selected this organization as its Hometown Charity partner. Over the six years, they have received over $230,000 from the Subaru Share the Love Event.
Supporting Sustainability in our Community Through Hands-on Education - Amy A
On February 18th, The Innovation Barn celebrated the announcement of a new program designed to educate kids on the Circular Economy. Subaru South Blvd, having been introduced to the Innovation Barn was pleased to offer sponsorship for an event that encompasses both the Subaru Loves Learning® and Subaru Loves the Earth® Love Promise® pillars. Kids of all ages were welcomed to come to the Innovation Barn to learn about the Circular Economy and how they can become a Deputy of Diversion! Kids learned about materials that go straight to the landfill and how they can divert those materials through reuse, reduce and recycle methods. They were also invited to work with local artist, Amy Hart, to create their own deputy diversion badge that they can place on the Level Up wall at the Innovation Barn. As the kids implement what they learned at the Deputy Diversion event, and implement this knowledge at home and school around diverting materials from the landfill, they can come back to the barn and level up their badge! Each level represents different activities they can master to help us better manage our materials and create a more sustainable Charlotte! All of the Innovation Barn partners were onsite with educational information for the attendees on the Circular Economy, on their role and what individuals can do in their daily lives. Hot cocoa and coffee provided by non-profit Change Please is another example of the Innovation Barn’s commitment to serving the community. Change Please coffee shop and training academy provides opportunities and resources for those experiencing homelessness. The event was well attended, and visitors enjoyed a beautiful day. There was much interest in the new Subaru Solterra, Subaru’s first fully electric vehicle. The Solterra was plugged in to a solar-powered ChargePoint charger, just one of the many ways the Innovation Barn is leading the way in sustainability! Visitors to the Subaru display were able to experience the Solterra and learn about the Subaru - Terracycle recycling initiative, as well as the Eco-friendly Retailer program.
Fighting Food Insecurity - Subaru Loves to Help® - Whitney M
Food Insecurity is one of the four major challenges facing our community today, along with childcare, workforce development and housing. Women and families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, with 85% of homeless families headed by single women. One setback, as simple as an unexpected car repair, may mean the difference between affording food or paying the rent while still being able to get to work. At work, promotions and raises may be just enough to make a family or individual ineligible for assistance, but not enough to make up the difference for necessities. Childcare costs are at a premium and space in affordable child care centers is hard to find. Figures just released in our metro area show that it takes four full-time wage earners to afford the average 2-bedroomapartment in our city. This severely limits choices for young families headed by single women. As we explore how we might impact the other three challenges, we push forward on food insecurity. Beginning in November with Loaves & Fishes / Friendship Trays as the hometown charity partner in the Subaru Share the Love® Event, continuing with a donation of over 1,400 pounds of canned food to be distributed by the food pantry and that ultimately led to a partnership with WCNC-TV for the annual Scouting for Food campaign. Scouting for Food is a tradition that spans more than 30 years. Boy Scouts, grocery stores, transportation companies, churches and WCNC-TV all working together to pull off the largest annual donation drive for Loaves & Fishes / Friendship Trays, a network of emergency food pantries and the local Meals on Wheels program. This food drive is the largest collection of food for Loaves & Fishes each year. This year over 216,000 pounds of food were collected. Community members were asked to put food out for Boy Scouts to collect if they received a hang tag on their door. If they did not, then they were asked to bring food donations to Subaru South Blvd or Subaru Concord for delivery on collection day. Two Subaru vehicles were filled with donations and delivered: One on collection day and one a week later as donations kept pouring in after the official end date! Subaru South Blvd has a long history of supporting Friendship Trays, now merged with Loaves & Fishes to create one organization addressing hunger in multiple ways. Subaru of America and Subaru South Blvd have donated over $230,000, through the Subaru Share the Love Event since 2017 to feed neighbors. In addition to the Share the Love partnership, Subaru South Blvd has participated in meal delivery, volunteered for kitchen prep and held donation drives to support the merged organization’s dual role as a food pantry network that directly serves people experiencing food insecurity and the county's primary Meals on Wheels program. The partnership began a dozen years ago. Whitney Marti, Customer and Community Liaison for Subaru South Blvd and Subaru Concord shared, "We had enough interest in donations to this non-profit, that when approached by a local TV station to participate in a non-perishable food drive, we immediately signed on! Multiple boxes were placed in the showroom and the donations began pouring in and continued to arrive until well over a week after the campaign's official end date. It seemed a perfect answer to our question of 'What do you have an abundance of before the holidays, that you find yourself in need of in January?'" The partnership with WCNC-TV afforded the Subaru Retailer three opportunities to share the Subaru Love Promise with the community, during an afternoon newscast, midday lifestyle show and the live collection finale. As CEO Tina Postel shared with WCNC-TV, there are often misconceptions of who needs help "Many of the people that we help are actively working but they're living paycheck to paycheck and they simply just cannot get caught up." Every food donation helps, every volunteer hour sorting and packing food helps. If you would like to help, please reach out to your community’s food pantries, food banks and/or Meals on Wheels organizations.
Subaru Loves Learning® - Sterling Elementary Impact - Whitney M
It is always a great day when we get to visit with the staff of Sterling Elementary School. The staff is an amazing group of educators and support personnel whose love of children shows through in all they do. Last fall, Subaru South Blvd provided flexible funding and classroom supplies as part of the Subaru Loves Learning Initiative. This year, we received the following letters and images on how the support was used to improve their students’ experiences: “As part of a few classroom items ordered using the donation, I have decided that by purchasing nice comfy seating for the classroom library would be a great touch to the classroom. Although I am speaking about chairs here, I can say that the students are very encouraged to go to the classroom library to read books even if they can’t read as of yet! Having the seats there has created a more cozy classroom climate and has truly allowed the students to feel more comfortable in the space given for them to learn and be engaged towards wanting to learn more! This donation has also impacted my classroom in the way that the new materials such as the people's skin-tone color crayons have allowed every student to feel like they are included just by seeing their skin tone on paper! I am excited to see what more of an impact this donation can bring along not only to the classroom but to the students directly! I really appreciate the donation!” - Emily M., Sterling Elementary School “One of the larger things I purchased using the donation money was a reading program for my students, RazPlus. This was a resource I had used during my first year as a teacher and I really missed using it in the classroom during small group instruction. Thanks to your kind donation, my students now have access to this rich program where they are eager to learn and grow as readers! Seeing the love of reading ignite passion within my students has been truly inspiring to me as an educator. I couldn’t have done it without your generous donation! "Thank you" just doesn’t seem quite enough to express my gratitude for giving my students an opportunity to develop their love of reading.” - Carolyn K., Sterling Elementary School
Subaru Loves Learning® - Sterling Elementary Impact - Whitney M
It is always a great day when we get to visit with the staff and/or students at our partner school, Sterling Elementary School in Charlotte. The staff is an amazing group of educators and support personnel whose love of children shows through in all they do. Last fall, Subaru South Blvd provided flexible funding and classroom supplies as part of the Subaru Loves Learning Initiative. This year, we received the following letters and images on how the support was used to improve their students’ experiences: “As part of a few classroom items ordered using the donation, I have decided that by purchasing nice comfy seating for the classroom library would be a great touch to the classroom. Although I am speaking about chairs here, I can say that the students are very encouraged to go to the classroom library to read books even if they can’t read as of yet! Having the seats there has created a more cozy classroom climate and has truly allowed the students to feel more comfortable in the space given for them to learn and be engaged towards wanting to learn more! This donation has also impacted my classroom in the way that the new materials such as the people's skin-tone color crayons have allowed every student to feel like they are included just by seeing their skin tone on paper! I am excited to see what more of an impact this donation can bring along not only to the classroom but to the students directly! I really appreciate the donation!” - Emily M. "My students are going to be so appreciative of their new school supplies! Your generosity means so much to us!" - Kadie W. “One of the larger things I purchased using the donation money was a reading program for my students, RazPlus. This was a resource I had used during my first year as a teacher and I really missed using it in the classroom during small group instruction. Thanks to your kind donation, my students now have access to this rich program where they are eager to learn and grow as readers! Seeing the love of reading ignite passion within my students has been truly inspiring to me as an educator. I couldn’t have done it without your generous donation! "Thank you" just doesn’t seem quite enough to express my gratitude for giving my students an opportunity to develop their love of reading.” - Carolyn K. "Wow, THANK YOU SO MUCH for the Generous Contribution! I have the most amazing group of 3rd Graders and this will help so much get more materials and resources needed for my classroom." - Ashley M. "Thank you so much for your donation! As a beginning kindergarten teacher, this means the world to me, our school and our students! This donation will be put to good use as I work in a Title 1 school with 99% of students living in poverty. As a kindergarten teacher, my students education journey really starts with me! I can not wait to take these sweet kindergarten students to the next level to become better readers with lots of books! I will also be able to provide daily essential items for these students along with engaging activities that will be used during small groups and so much more! I value this donation more than you know! My kinder babies and I thank you for your generosity!" - McKenzie N. "By adopting classrooms at our school, Subaru is building bridges between the school and the community. Teachers feel supported and know that Subaru values educators. As many are aware, teachers often spend their own money to make purchases for their students and the classroom. This flexible funding provides teachers with access to additional resources and also rewards some of our hardest working teachers. By rewarding these teachers, their students directly benefit from access to more resources and to empowered teachers." - Dr. Emily Miles, Principal
Subaru Loves to Help - Melissa C
Sock Delivery to the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope provides warmth and hope to people experiencing homelessness. The Subaru Loves to Help initiative is about supporting those who need it most in our communities. Warm socks are one of the most requested items at the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope. Socks are critical in providing comfort and maintaining the health of those who are experiencing homelessness. Subaru South Blvd is donating 1,000 pairs of socks to be distributed to people being served by the Center of Hope. Nationwide, this initiative has resulted in the donation of 100,000 water-resistant blankets and over 500,000 pairs of socks. Delivering socks today are Retailers Bill Musgrave and Wanda Musgrave who have provided many years of support to the Salvation Army by serving on the board and supporting the Boys & Girls Clubs, shared their thoughts on the importance and impact of the Subaru Loves to Help initiative. Gary Porter, Executive General Manager and Whitney Marti, Customer & Community Liaison also participated in the delivery again for the third year in a row. Representing the Center of Hope in the chilly weather were Major Wilma Mason, Brent Rinehart and Melissa Corzine. “This is not the first time that Subaru South Blvd has helped the Salvation army, it is especially important this year because it is in the middle of the winter season and allows to make sure that everyone goes out of here each morning with warm feet each and every morning,” shared Major Wilma Mason. Whitney Marti stated, “People don’t think about how such a small item can make such a huge impact on someone’s health and livelihood.” The timing of the donation was perfect: New, warm socks being delivered in the morning, followed by a visit in the afternoon by a local non-profit providing new shoes. A community coming together to serve families experiencing homelessness is truly inspiring. We would ask you to consider providing your support. Items always needed by the shelter include twin, flat sheets, towels, family-sized shampoos/shower gels and undergarments.
Tree of Green (Beans) - Whitney M
Food insecurity affects 1 in 5 residents of Mecklenburg County. Our Subaru Share the Love Event partner, Loaves & Fishes / Friendship Trays, works hard every day to feed our neighbors. Through them we learned of the first ever “Navigating the Necessities” event. This unique event combined a panel discussion of nonprofit leaders with enlightening insights on the challenges facing our community in the areas of Food-Housing-Employment and Child care and offered ways that individuals and organizations could make a difference, including volunteer or support opportunities. The goal in attending was to learn how we can help women who are struggling in one or more of these areas and meet more of our community's non-profits. During the panel discussion, food insecurity, as well as lack of affordable shelter, work-force development and childcare were named as the four main challenges facing our county. The stigma attached to needing food assistance, by those who might not seek assistance due to embarrassment or pride, as well as by bystanders not fully understanding how someone may find themselves needing help were discussed. One of the points made was that there is no 'street value' for beans. People are not starving themselves or choosing to live below the poverty line just to get free green beans! From this discussion an idea was born: A "Christmas tree" of green beans, over 1,100 lbs was built in Subaru South Blvd's showroom to start conversations around this need and provide a visual representation to our sales and service guests of the need for food in our community. During the presentation, donations were offered by attendees to purchase more green beans and an additional 300 lbs of green beans were added to the “tree.” The first part of the video is the kick-off meeting for The Subaru Share the Love Event. Subaru South Blvd's hometown charity partner visited to talk about their mission and we surprised them with the 'tree'. The video winds up with the delivery of the green beans to their warehouse in Charlotte. Our long-time hometown charity partner, Friendship Trays, merged with Loaves & Fishes and we wanted to highlight their entire mission and communicate the growth of their impact on our community: They now provide food resources to many more people – serving families, individuals of all ages, and continue to serve as the county’s meals on wheels program. Subaru of America and Subaru South Blvd have provided over $150,000 in support to this partner through the Subaru Share the Love Event from 2017 through 2022. This year our cumulative total is estimated to reach over $225,000! Since 2011, the Subaru South Blvd team volunteered in the kitchen with the meals on wheels program and delivered meals on several occasions, including this past year’s March for Meals campaign. Additionally, Subaru South Blvd team members have created cards for the meals on wheels recipients – from Valentine’s Day cards tucked in puzzle books to December holiday cards that include notes of encouragement. To see more videos about Loaves & Fishes / Friendship Trays, visit our YouTube channel.
Blood Donors are Modern-Day Superheroes - Zach S
The reason to donate is simple…it helps save lives. In fact, every two seconds of every day, someone needs blood. Since blood cannot be manufactured outside the body and has a limited shelf life, the supply must constantly be replenished by generous blood donors. Blood donors play a vital role in the healthcare of patients in our community. 37% of the population is eligible to donate blood, yet only 5% actually do. The number one reason given by donors is that they want to help others. There are many reasons patients need blood. A common misunderstanding about blood usage is that accident victims are the patients who use the most blood. Actually, people needing the most blood include those: • Being treated for cancer • Undergoing orthopedic surgeries • Undergoing cardiovascular surgeries • Being treated for inherited blood disorders We are thankful that Subaru owners and Subaru South Blvd team members continue to answer the call to provide life-saving blood donations! In 2022, Subaru South Blvd scheduled 6 blood drives – as close to the 56 day waiting period as possible for donors who like to give as often as they are eligible to do so. Thank you gifts for successful donors throughout the year included a $20 eGift Card, an insulated tumbler, blanket, beach towel or t-shirt from OneBlood and a generous $35 Subaru South Blvd gift certificate that could be used toward any Subaru purchase whether maintenance, repairs, accessories or parts. Additionally, donors who give multiple times a year can earn ‘challenge gifts’ in the form of e-gift cards from OneBlood. Amounts start at $20 and increase with each additional donation. Subaru South Blvd collected 85 total units for the year. Each unit has the possibility of saving up to 3 lives. If you have read this far and are able, please donate at a drive near you or even more impactful – reach out to OneBlood and arrange to host blood drives with your business, organization, neighborhood, club or school – we need heroes like you! (Data compiled by and sourced from OneBlood.org)
Stuff the Subaru with the School of Rock Charlotte - Whitney M
Historically, Subaru South Blvd engaged only with their Subaru Share the Love Event partner during December to focus on their partner’s mission of serving our food-insecure neighbors. Then the Subaru team learned of gaps in an existing program that provides Christmas gifts to local children. One of our community’s philanthropic powerhouses, Jon Wilson of Wilson’s World, made a career change this year and was wondering how to fill in the gaps as he had previously: Wilson’s World organized a toy drive every year, in conjunction with his previous employer, to fill the gaps in The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree. This year would be different: This year we would ‘Stuff a Subaru” with toys for children who might otherwise go without. Our goal: supplement the Angel Tree and fill in those gaps. Building bridges and bringing together community partners ensures success. Both the Marine Corp’s ‘Toys for Tots’ drive and the Salvation Army’s ‘Angel Tree’ toy drive provide holiday gifts. Both make a huge impact in December. We initially believed the need for donations to be fully covered thanks to both organization’s efforts. The Angel Tree program is far-reaching. Each Angel represents a child in our community whose family cannot purchase gifts. Individuals and companies ‘sponsor’ a child by taking an Angel from the tree. The Angel has the child’s age and their wish list printed on it. Gaps occur for several reasons: At risk families fleeing dangerous conditions arrive in our community after Angel Tree registration closes and therefore the children have no angel on a tree. A catastrophe, such as fire or flood, creates an unanticipated need for a local family and finally, members of the community, who may have the best intentions, take an angel from the Angel Tree and then do not fulfill the gift list – The child’s wish list is just gone! Building on past partnerships, Jon Wilson connected the Director of the School of Rock Charlotte, Drea Atkins, and Subaru South Blvd. The School of Rock wanted to have an event that would showcase their musicians’ skills, celebrate the holidays in a fun, family-friendly way and give back to our community. Triple C Brewing Co.’s event space was chosen for families to gather, enjoy music, holiday treats, crafts and games. Event marketing was designed to bring in a crowd - the School of Rock community, Subaru owners and the general public. All communications included the request for new, unwrapped toys. We live in an amazingly generous community and this is especially true of the School of Rock community! Toys streamed in all afternoon. Cold, damp weather didn’t slow down the steady flow of families bringing gifts to Stuff the Subaru! Some families had forgotten their gifts at home, or had not shopped and chose to make a cash donation which we turned into more toys! Subaru owners were delighted to be a part of the toy or cash donations effort and shared this with the team manning the toy collection. One brand new Subaru owner who was visiting from out of town made a donation and stayed to ask questions about this and other Love Promise events throughout the year. He expressed pride in having chosen a brand that does so much for the community they serve. The event reached both Subaru owners and non-Subaru owners and gave them insight into the Subaru Love Promise. Event attendees enjoyed music, hot chocolate, holiday-themed crafts, games, contests and more. Over 120 individual new, unwrapped toys were collected in under 5 hours! Many of the toys were delivered by children and School of Rock students accompanied by their parents on their way in to the concert. The School of Rock community really took up the challenge to ‘Stuff the Subaru’ and their generosity is heartwarming! On the day after the concert, Drea Atkins, Wilson and Whitney Marti of Subaru South Blvd delivered the toys to the Christmas Center. The Salvation Army’s Brent Rinehart, Director of Communications & Public Relations, accepted and counted the donated toys before showing us around the Christmas Center operation. He walked us through the Angel Tree process and explained how children in need might be left out and how the non-Angel Tree toy drives augmented the Angels to provide gifts, and just how much they are needed. The toys were unloaded from the Subaru into bins for sorting by volunteers. Located in a huge building, the operation is a sight to behold: to the right of the entrance are bags, with angels attached. Some bags were already filled, others folded up and waiting to be filled. To the left are the toys that are too large for the bags. Each item numbered and catalogued for distribution beginning in a few days. A drive-through operation to distribute the gifts takes place from the building’s loading docks and completes the cycle of gifts arriving at front of the building. Staffed almost entirely by volunteers, this is an amazing endeavor and we are thankful for the opportunity to participate.
Subaru South Blvd Presents: For the Love of Pets - Haley S
On behalf of the staff and volunteers of CMPD Animal Care & Control, we thank the team at Subaru South Blvd. for its sponsorship of our Free Clinic, Adoption, and Rabies Awareness Event “Subaru South Blvd Presents: For the Love of Pets” held on Saturday, October 8, 2022. BIG SHOUT OUT to Whitney Marti, Customer Liaison, Subaru South Blvd, and her team for sponsoring the event again this year! Subaru will also be providing Animal Care & Control with a $100 donation for every animal adopted up to 31 adoptions during the month of October in honor of Subaru Loves Pets month. And we’ve already exceeded that goal! Subaru South Blvd. was the main feature of our vendor fair of local pet-friendly businesses and organizations at the event, which also included representatives from Friends of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Care & Control, the Mecklenburg Health Department, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water, Pet Supplies Plus. 311, Epic Animal Recovery, WFNZ, Doody Calls, and Gilmore Dog Walking. Participants enjoyed learning about Subaru vehicles, receiving vendor information, giveaways, and making donations to the shelter animals to further support affordable animal care. Most importantly, we had a very successful morning serving our community and over 185 pets in the clinic. The crowd was divided into several stations, which were organized and supervised by our shelter’s amazing medical and leadership teams. A total of 44 animals were adopted by end of the day – including Eos, a 1-year-old pit bull with separation anxiety that had been with us for over 60 days! Below is a breakdown of services provided to community guests: • 159 microchips • 185 rabies vaccines • 58 ID tags Subaru South Blvd. has been a mainstay Mission Partner with CMPD Animal Care & Control for over 10 years, and our partnership continues to grow. Whitney Marti and the Subaru South Blvd team at this amazing dealership have participated in annual event sponsorships, provided critical animal ownership education to its community, and is a vital CMPD Animal Care & Control Community Microchip Checkpoint Site that helps identify lost pets and return them to their owners.
