Kwik Shop raised $51,571.36 as part of its sixth annual “Make a Difference with a Dollar” competitive fundraising campaign in August. During the entire month, employees invited their customers to donate a dollar with their purchases to help support the clients of Heartland Family Service (www.HeartlandFamilyService.org). The fundraising campaign included two car washes and a mini-carnival.
Because Kwik Shop’s business is related to auto ownership, the fundraiser contributes to the Heartland Family Service Ways to Work program, which offers low-interest auto loans to working families with challenging credit in Omaha, Council Bluffs and the surrounding areas. Proceeds from Fremont, NE stores will go toward supporting the Heartland Family Service Jefferson House Children’s Shelter and Group Home.
Ways to Work is a Community Development Financial Institution based in Milwaukee that provides small, short-term, low-interest auto loans to working families with dependent children. The loans are used to help people with challenging credit histories to remain in or to move forward in their jobs — a critical asset of financial stability. Heartland Family Service administers the program locally in Douglas, Sarpy and Washington counties in Nebraska and Pottawattamie and Mills counties in Iowa, providing support services to ensure borrowers fulfill their loan requirements. In 2014 alone, the Heartland Family Service Ways to Work program provided 75 loans, creating the path to a better tomorrow for more than 300 family members in the Omaha area.