Like many small business, signshop proprietors often struggle to reach their bottom line and must work harder than ever to find and keep customers. In these times, it’s even more challenging to make room in the budget to make charitable contributions. But, Don Smith the owner of Imagination Signworks (McKinney, TX), one of Sign Biz Network’s approximately 180 affiliated, independent stores, committed to just that by donating more than $15,000 to Operation Finally Home, a San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit organization that builds custom homes nationwide for wounded or disabled veterans and their windows. He said the organization’s goal is to build 38,000 homes – roughly the anticipated number of veterans who have or will return from Middle Eastern conflict severely injured or wounded, Smith said.
He heard about the organization through his volunteer efforts with Habitat for Humanity and, being a military veteran, Smith said “the story hit home.” To date, he said he’s donated at least $5,000 over each of the last three years to Operation Finally Home – to say nothing of his time volunteering. Of course, he’s also produced banners and related graphics for organization events.
Now, he’s enlisted Teresa Young, Sign Biz’s president, who spread word to other Sign Biz shops to help the effort. To date, Smith said more than 40 shops have thus far pledged to support the case. She said the organization participated in an Operation Finally Home workshop during its annual meeting held earlier in October, and will further promote its efforts at the ISA Sign Expo, as well as serve as account coordinator for all California homebulding projects. Smith lauded fellow Sign Biz owners as “a great group of businesspeople who want to help our country, communities and individuals who deserve help.”