Supporting Our Teachers and Our Community — It’s What We Do
“Park Place cares for our community, that’s just what we do,’” says general manager and Carroll Dragon alumnus, Gary Venner. For the past 15 years, Park Place Dealerships has been a leading partner and champion of the Carroll Education Foundation (CEF).
That partnership says a lot for its commitment to our teachers, schools and community. As the title sponsor for the CEF Culinary Celebration, Park Place Dealerships has supported teacher classroom grants, scholarships and funded teachers through CEF. And, this is just a small part of what they do for our community.
With the cancellation of the CEF Culinary Celebration for the second year in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic, CEF has had to pivot and come up with innovative ways to raise funds and thank our donors. This year, CEF will host a Thank You Drive-Thru event for their donors ($1,000 and up).
“The focus of this event is to show our appreciation for our donors but to also help support the restaurants and local businesses who have been hit so hard during the pandemic. We’re doing this by filling a donor thank you gift box with special items and restaurant gift cards to drive customers to these businesses,” says Kim Bedwell, CEF board member and chair of the event.
In addition to the Thank You Drive-Thru event, CEF is also working with Park Place and locally based, international auction house Heritage Auctions to create an online auction that is unlike any that Southlake has ever seen. The “Beyond the Box” Auction will be held May 14 through June 4, with a “live” online auction on June 4 at 8 p.m.
“Park Place Dealerships has continued their support of our organization during these challenging times, by partnering with us to create the best opportunities to showcase the CEF Teacher Fund and the work we do in the community — all while keeping us socially distant and safe. We truly could not do it without them,” says CEF executive director Kathy Lanier.
Park Place Dealerships’ support of CEF, and more than 250 local nonprofits, is a part of the #ParkPlaceCares community giving and support program.
“At Park Place, we pursue the highest standards of corporate responsibility in everything we do — and that includes supporting and empowering our team members to improve the quality of life in the communities where we do business. In addition, the 1,400 Park Place employees are further challenged to volunteer their time and resources to serve our communities,” says Anam Ali Hashambhai, marketing director at Park Place Dealerships.
For more information about the #ParkPlaceCares program, visit ParkPlace.com/Community And, for additional information about CEF's upcoming events, check out CarrollEducationFoundation.org/events.
