“It’s time for us to pull together and stop the bickering and finger-pointing and just help people in need,” says Marc Joseph, President and CEO of DollarDays, a subsidiary of America’s Suppliers, Inc. (AASL.PK), a premier Internet-based product wholesaler to small businesses and local distributors.
As part of the company’s ongoing corporate philanthropy program, this month, DollarDays will donate more than 1,000 blankets to homeless shelters around the country. Through the company’s Facebook page, customers can enter their local shelter into a sweepstakes. Winners will be selected January 4, 2012.
“The economy is in shambles, and our neighbors and fellow human beings need help. The people that help them need assistance, and it’s time we stop griping and just do something,” says Joseph. “DollarDays works closely with small-business owners who are so economically burdened, but they also are the most philanthropic people, and we appeal to them and their customers to help out as well.”
According to Michigan State University, three-million Americans, a fourth of which are children, go without shelter every night, and, during the winter months, the 3,235 homeless shelters and social service outlets in the United States are filled to capacity and working at a breaking point.
Every month throughout 2011, DollarDays has donated up to $5,000 in product to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, and they plan to continue it throughout 2012.
“There’s so much noise about how to solve economic woes, but at a grassroots level, we just need to help with product, food and financial donations.”
In addition to small businesses, DollarDays services the nonprofit sector, which has been the fastest-growing segment of its business. Through DollarDays, nonprofit organizations have access to necessary supplies by the case that help them stretch their donated dollars.
Joseph reports that nonprofits are buying everything from office supplies and health and beauty products to fundraising items. Other top-selling supplies include batteries, inexpensive clothing, recognition awards and plaques, holiday greeting cards, and small electronics. In fact, Occupy Wall Street ordered Army blankets.
In November, Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary, located in St. Pauls, North Carolina, won the DollarDays $2,500 grand prize for use toward product. Founded in 2005, Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary provides a safe place for blind cats deemed un-adoptable by regular shelters due to blindness or illness.
“Thank you so much to DollarDays for their wonderful contest, giving us the opportunity to win $2,500 of merchandise,” says Alana Miller, Director of Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary. “This wonderful gift allowed us to buy cleaning and office supplies that will last us many months. Freeing up those funds allowed us to provide the cats with new climbers that were not in our current budget. We are so grateful to [DollarDays] for their kindness!”
Joseph adds, “Everyone has something that touches them, whether it’s animals, children, homelessness or medical issues. We just need to act on our natural impulse to help, and in this hectic world with a scary economy, it’s hard to do. But, like DollarDays, even a little every month helps, and it’s so rewarding for everyone.”