Auto dealer launches new community program

During the recent ribbon cutting at Davenport Autopark’s grand reopening, vice president and general manager Neill Nelson announced the dealership’s new Community For Life program.

Davenport is partnering with Reach Out Rocky Mount’s Fun Run for Charities to reinvest a portion of every vehicle sale directly back to the community. Each Davenport customer will be able to designate which participating nonprofit organizations receive a donation from the dealership. The Davenport contributions will be matched by Fun Run for Charities’ matching gift fund. Davenport is calling the new initiative “Community For Life” branded after its “Dealership For Life” program.

“Reach Out Rocky Mount is thankful for companies like Davenport Autopark that want to give back to our community and make Fun Run for Charities a successful event,” Lige Daughtridge, Reach Out Rocky Mount’s board chairman, said at the ribbon cutting. “Fun Run for Charities is an opportunity for all area citizens to work together for the benefit of our community, to solve problems and to make Rocky Mount a better place to live.”

Reach Out Rocky Mount’s annual Fun Run for Charities supports local nonprofit organizations including churches, schools, charities and service clubs that offer public outreach programming in the form of scholarships, emergency assistance, youth outreach, general education, cultural programs and public health programs.

Reach Out Rocky Mount raised a total of $253,266 in its inaugural 2008 Fun Run for Charities event. The event is modeled after Old Bill’s Fun Run of Jackson Hole, Wyo., which raises more than $7 million each year.

Reach Out Rocky Mount has created and operates an online community calendar for the area, which can be viewed at www.reachoutrockymount.org/calendar.php .

For more information, contact event organizers at 252-451-9985 or visit the Web sites www.reachoutrockymount.com and www.FunRunRM.org.

Reach Out Rocky Mount is an affiliate of the N.C. Community Foundation, a statewide community development organization created to build capacity through philanthropy. The foundation administers more than $117 million in assets that sustain nearly 1,000 endowment funds established to provide long-term support of a broad range of charitable needs, nonprofit organizations and scholarships in more than 65 communities across the state, with an emphasis on underserved areas. The foundation operates through a network of seven regions designed to provide local resource allocation and community assistance.

For more information on the foundation, visit nccommunityfoundation.org.