Hearthside Food Solutions is a food manufacturing company based out of Illinois, with locations in Grand Rapids, McComb, and Michigan City, Michigan, and also in Wilmar, Minnesota. Procurement Analyst Donna Schultz was in charge of launching a fundraising campaign at the Grand Rapids Campus. Donna knew her friend and coworker, Crystal, had a son born with a heart defect and came up with the idea of doing a fundraiser for an organization that had helped Crystal and her family as they went through their journey with CHD. When asked of such an organization, Crystal immediately thought of Heart Heroes and suggested a fundraiser to raise funds for superhero capes, and the Hearts for Heroes Fundraiser was born!
Because Hearthside Food Solutions is a food manufacturing company, there are strict dress codes and safety protocols in place, so some of the more popular company fundraisers wouldn’t work, like a Jeans Day or Casual Day fundraiser (where the employees pay to be able to “dress down” or wear jeans for a day). Donna came up with the idea of paying $1.00 to purchase a Heart for a Hero. 5,000 custom-designed paper hearts were generously donated to the fundraiser by Packaging Corporation of America, one of Hearthside’s vendors. Greg Stefancin, with the IT Department created a flier to promote the event and also the presented donation check.
When the month-long campaign launched in February, the various locations and departments at the Grand Rapids campus became really involved with the fundraiser. Creativity and ingenuity reigned supreme across the entire campus, with each department getting involved and devising competitions to spark interest! Donna was ecstatic- “We saw a tremendous amount of creativity at every location- everything from competitions between shifts, to bake sales.” One facility had a bake sale during the fundraiser and another held a potluck during each shift, with a suggested donation and a 50/50 raffle. The winner of the raffle, Sal Badalamenti donated $100 of his winnings back to Heart Heroes and we thank him for his incredible generosity and support. Some shifts competed against each other to see which would “have the most heart”. A taco, burrito and tamale sale helped another location generate donations, as well as a pizza sale and chili cook-off at other locations (YUM!).
Crystal’s son, Xander, was born on August 15, 2014 with several congenital heart defects. Xander has Double Outlet Right Ventricle (DORV), Single Ventricle, and Pulmonary Stenosis. When both the pulmonary artery and aorta arise from the right ventricle, it is called DORV. In addition, Xander was born with only one ventricle that was large or strong enough to function effectively (single ventricle) and had narrowing from the right ventricle to the pulmonary artery (stenosis). He had a heart catheterization procedure in October to balloon his pulmonary artery and underwent the Hemi-Fontan on December 17, 2014. The fundraiser was held in honor of this brave Heart Hero. Xander was one of our amazing Daily Heroes in our One Heart CHD Month Campaign- you can read this inspirational little guy’s story here.
A staggering $7,234 was raised during the Hearts for Heroes fundraiser, helping to outfit over 289 Heart Heroes with their very own official custom-designed Heart Hero Cape!! A huge congratulations to the H-5 Facility for raising a staggering $2,121 alone!
Heart Heroes is so appreciative for the hard work and outstanding efforts from every single employee at Hearthside Food Solutions. Thank you for everything you did and for helping us to further our mission. We want to honor Hearthside Food Solutions for “having heart” and for their incredible generosity and support for Heart Heroes!
If you would like more information on hosting a fundraiser to benefit Heart Heroes, Inc. please contact us.