Next week, 200 of the very top Amway leaders from around the world, called the Amway Founders Council, will meet in West Michigan.
Members of the Yager family will be found among the Founders Council ranks, as they were some of the earliest Amway distributor leaders.
We had a chance to visit them last year in Charlotte, North Carolina, and see their values in action through the second generation of family leadership, in support of Easter Seals. This video tells the story:
Amway is in so many communities, that it’s hard to keep track of all of our activities for children, particularly among Amway Independent Business Owners.
After learning that I would be heading to Boston next week to participate in the Boston College International Corporate Citizenship Conference, I decided to see what Amway people were doing there.
The best story I found came from Amway IBO and Claudia Nardone. She has been a longtime supporter of Easter Seals, an organization that helps people with disabilities to achieve their potential. Her network of Amway IBOs has raised approximately $3 million for Easter Seals over the years.
A couple of years ago, Claudia heard a speech by Easter Seals president Jim Williams that included the fact that $1 in preventative care can save $7 in later services. It made her think of the old proverb: “A stitch in time saves nine.”
Claudia used this spark of an idea to create a Stitch in Time campaign that collected people’s change using specially designed buckets. The initiative raised more than $100,000 in its first year alone.
Among the programs Claudia supports is Easter Seals Explorers Camp – a camp specifically geared to meet the needs of those on the autism spectrum or with other developmental disabilities.
Explorers Camp is an incredible place, with a high ratio of staff to campers, engaging the services and enthusiasm of a large crew of high school and college-age volunteers. Many of the staff and volunteers are also people with disabilities themselves including some who have autism.
I’m sure there are many other stories in Boston, some of which we will never learn about. It’s good to know that in any part of the world, anywhere Amway does business, there are Amway people finding unique and compelling ways to help children, one by one.
Thanks to Marsha Champion for sharing this story.
Our journey around the world continues as we zoom out to the regional level, extending from Canada to the Caribbean.
In the US, we saw the fruition of a three-year partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America in 2012. Amway Positive Sprouts helps teach city children about nutrition through building edible organic gardens. A new kit developed last year will ensure that the program continues to grow.
We also saw the expansion of a partnership with the US Dream Academy, which mentors children whose parents have been incarcerated. Amway invited some lucky Amway Independent Business Owners to Washington DC to learn more about the cause they were supporting and attend the annual gala.
In 2012, we met Jim and Nancy Dornan in Atlanta, Georgia. The Dornans created Network of Caring to help children around the world, including those in power wheelchairs. They have helped scale up Power Soccer to an international sport, and a meaningful community of caring.
One of the biggest stories of the year was reaching the 30-year partnership milestone with Easter Seals. Started originally by Amway, Independent Business Owners have picked up this partnership and made it their own, raising more than $30 million over the years for people with disabilities, through many creative ways of support.
Our team visited the Yager family in Charlotte, North Carolina, where we saw a longstanding commitment from two generations of Amway IBO leaders in helping children with special needs. Amway and its people continued to participate in fundraising walks around the country. We even partnered with Easter Seals centers on the East Coast to help with relief efforts following Superstorm Sandy.
The Easter Seals partnership does not end at the US borders. Amway and IBOs in Canada regularly rappel down skyscrapers to raise money for the cause. Amway Dominican Republic and Amway Puerto Rico also have established partnerships with Easter Seals affiliates to help children with special needs.
And just recently, the US announced an exciting new partnership that will bring the famous “We Day” to this country for the first time, collaborating with Free the Children.
And so the year in North America ended as it began, with a flurry of opportunities and activities that are making a profound difference in communities around us … one by one.
In 2013, Amway will celebrate 30 years of supporting Easter Seals to help children with disabilities - a partnership that predates the Amway One by One Campaign for Children and covers more than half of the history of Amway. How did it grow, and how does it last? There are many stories to unravel to answer the question.
First, consider four-year-old Mia in Charlotte, North Carolina. While she is a happy, energetic girl with a doting brother and caring parents, Mia has developmental disabilities that require special care. The Easter Seals UCP Child Care Center in Charlotte is just what Mia and her family need. It provides therapy programs in the classroom with onsite specialists, while creating a blended environment for children at all development levels, and from all backgrounds. It is a beautiful, happy atmosphere run by caring, professional staff. Yet it is always in need of support to keep it going.
That’s where the next story begins. It’s about Dexter and Birdie Yager, who started an Amway business that would become one of the most successful in the world. The Yagers have reached the Amway Founders Council recognition level, and have passed their Amway business to three of their seven children – Doyle, Steve and Jeff. They also passed on their legacy of support for Easter Seals.
Looking further back for the next story, the Yagers’ involvement with Easter Seals was initially inspired by Amway, which began a new kind of corporate sponsorship in the 1980s, by helping Easter Seals conduct national telethons to raise money for children with disabilities. The Yagers were one of the earliest and longest-lasting champions for Easter Seals. They gave of their own time and money, promoted Easter Seals to their IBO networks, and invited Easter Seals representatives to speak at their large business meetings and events.
The final story continues to be written. Between Amway, the Yagers and other Amway IBOs and employees across the country, more than $30 million has been raised to support Easter Seals over the years, through grassroots fundraising, volunteering at local centers and serving on local Easter Seals boards.
What drives them is the inspiration of children like Mia, who get the support they need to reach their potential.
Coming soon will be a video of Easter Seals, highlighting the work of the Yagers to help children like Mia. Thanks to the Amway North America staff, the Yager Group, and the Easter Seals UCP for sharing this wonderful story with us. To learn more about Easter Seals, visit www.easterseals.com.
We’re en route to visit another group of our top Amway Independent Business Owners: the Yager family.
Dexter and Birdie Yager have built one of the largest Amway businesses in the world, and along the way have inspired countless people to invest in Easter Seals.
The Yagers just joined in a partnership with the Amway One by One Campaign for Children, and we’re visiting to capture their story of years of investment in children with disibilities.
Stay tuned for more!
Three of our Amway colleagues stepped up – way up – to join Amway Independent Business Owners in this year’s Drop Zone event in London, Ontario.
Drop Zone is an event where everyday people get the chance to be superheroes for kids with physical disabilities through Easter Seals. Participants raise a minimum of $1,500 in pledges in exchange for the opportunity to challenge themselves and rappel down side of a downtown high rise building while astonished onlookers gaze up into the sky from the ground below.
Congratulations to Angela Abdallah, Kim Fletcher and Adriane Land (a.k.a. – The Amway Golden Avengers), pictured below as they prepare for their drop with Angela’s nephew, Steven.
One of the longest-standing partnerships – which even predates the Amway One by One campaign – is the 30-year partnership between Amway and Easter Seals. Easter Seals provides services for those with disabilities or special needs – services that are often beyond the financial means of families that struggle to care for their children.
Amway Independent Business Owners (IBOs) and employees across North America have made this cause their own, and continue to find creative ways to raise funds – and visibility – for Easter Seals. Recently, several IBOs who have been top contributors and fundraisers over the years were recognized at an event hosted by the New York Yankees baseball team’s “Yankee Stadium Legends Suite Club” – the event itself raising $500,000 for Easter Seals.
The event set the pace for the largest Easter Seals Walk With Me events in the country, this year led by Miss America Laura Kaeppeler.
Miss America not only led the procession to Yankee Stadium on behalf of Amway, but also spent time with IBOs at a local Easter Seals center, meeting with the children and families who benefit from the services.
Click here for a video that shares more about the activities. Thanks to Marsha Champion for sharing this story.
