Wesley House Family Services is a not-for-profit organization located in Monroe County, Florida. They perform a whole host of services, of which you can see on their website at www.wesleyhouse.org. Their mission is to promote and enhance the safety, well-being, and development of children by educating, supporting families and meeting their needs. Wesley House’s largest division handles foster care placement for Monroe County. Through their Case Management division, they work with passion and dedication on preventions, which is to help families who are in danger of losing their children to foster care. With their Healthy Families Monroe program, they teach skills to parents who have young children so they can be better parents moving forward. And that’s just a sampling of what Wesley House does for children and families.
As a non-profit organization, they largely depend on donations and their big annual Valentine’s Gala fundraising event. This year, coronavirus got in the way. But Wesley House needed that money. And so they had to get creative. But what could they do that would exemplify the very love and hope they’ve instilled in families’ lives? They came up with a fundraising campaign they called “Share the Love.”
And that’s where we, at Good Guys Signs, came in. While searching for a company to produce these heart-shaped signs, Grace Epperly, the Development Coordinator at Wesley House, was given some advice. She said, “A woman here in Key West has had yard letters made for her by Good Guys Signs. She told me to call them because they are the best.” Epperly went on to add, “They were the only company that would do signs in the shape of a heart.”
The genesis of the concept ironically from Epperly’s mother, Alice Calleja, who was formerly on Wesley House’s Board of Directors for years. The idea was to spread hearts throughout Monroe County as an alternative to their yearly gala.
Epperly contacted our office and got Dena Speropulos, one of our first-rate customer service representatives, on the phone. Epperly said of Dena, “She was great. Super responsive. Especially the day we ordered. She made it happen for us, especially with the ordering process and tight timeframe. She went above and beyond, not only with her service but by providing me with several different quotes so we could get the maximum return for our investment.”
It always makes us feel good to know that our customers really appreciate the effort our staff provides. And as for our company as a whole, we pride ourselves on our belief system. Our mission statement is that the business was built upon the principle of “Give More than you Take.” We want to make every facet of the buying process as easy and stress-free for our customers as we possibly can. We strive to have customers feel like they received immense quality, speed, and professionalism. So much so that they walk away feeling as if they would’ve even paid more than they did for the service we provide.
With that, we asked Epperly how she felt the process went. She didn’t hesitate, as she told us, “Everything was great. We actually got the order in a day earlier than expected. We will definitely use you again!”
But, this story is not about Good Guys Signs. This is a narrative about how the staff at Wesley House was going to ensure that hope for a better 2021 would continue for the members of the community. And the campaign was wildly successful. In just one month’s time of selling the heart-shaped signs, they were able to raise $25,000 in net profit. The impact and reaction from people in Monroe County surprised even Epperly. We could hear the continued excitement in her voice, even though the campaign ended a month and a half before we spoke with her. She told us, “Everybody loved it! It was awesome. It caught on like wildfire, especially once the hearts began to be seen around town.
We ordered 2,000 and have only 300 left. We’ll re-use them as decorations for our gala next year.” Epperly went on to say, “We got a lot of good feedback with people posting on Facebook about Share the Love. There was a lot of momentum and it was cool to see the neighborhoods join together. One house would get a bunch of hearts, which turned into six houses! By keeping the price point low, we had 86 new donors and revived some donors who had not given to Wesley House in 5 years or more.”
Our customer service rep, Dena, just happened to be the one to take that initial phone call. She was moved by Wesley House, and by what they do. As she puts it, “We process and quote up to 100s of jobs/potential jobs each day, so it’s easy to get in the habit of going through the motions. But it’s very heartwarming to be able to take a step back and know that we as a company were able to play a small part in helping organizations like Wesley House, who are working hard to bring people joy and more importantly, make a positive impact on the lives of others.”
As to how the funds from Share the Love will be allocated, all the programs at Wesley House will receive money to take care of what they need, be it things like orthodontics or summer camps, prom dresses, birthdays, families who already have kids and need help raising a foster child, clothing, health and beauty expenses, therapies that aren’t covered by Medicaid, and more.
And as a nice added touch, Epperly shared with us that Wesley House delivered hearts to all their foster families. One can only imagine the joy that brought to those special people.
We spoke earlier to the pride we take in taking care of our customers. So we wanted to ask Epperly what things were like for the staff at Wesley House, and how they felt about the Share the Love campaign. As she responded, we could almost see her smiling through the phone, “We were all pleasantly surprised at how amazing it was and how it took off. We were blown away.”
That’s how it came to pass in Monroe County, Florida for Valentine’s Day in 2021. Wesley House is planning to return to what they’ve done historically with their Valentine’s Gala next year. But this time around, a visionary and innovative idea took hold, and they ran with it. The community responded, and children and families who truly need help continue to receive the assistance they deserve.
If your church group or organization requires a fundraiser or has similar needs to that of Wesley House, we are here to help turn your idea into reality. Head to www.goodguyssigns.com or reach out to us at (800) 614-8040. We look forward to helping you in any way we can.