Tree Luggers: Giving Back to Our Community

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 by Blaine Cooper-Surma

It's that time of year again; the Holiday Season has passed and in a short amount of time you'll find yourself taking down those holiday decorations that probably cover your entire house.  After you've mustered up enough motivation to finally begin this lengthy process, the last struggle is always the disposal of the family Christmas tree.  However, that's not going to be the case for you this year - the Orr Fellows are here to help!

As a non-profit organization, the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship places a strong emphasis on community outreach, civic responsibility, and self-sustainability.  As such, one of our annual fundraisers is called "Tree Luggers" in which we travel around the Indianapolis community collecting and disposing of Christmas trees while collecting donations.  But how does this fundraiser actually benefit the community?  Well, first, we are providing a service that for many people is extremely helpful.  More importantly, though, we offer an incentive to local churches and other non-profit entities that promote our fundraiser to their members.  For all money that is donated to the Governor Bob Orr Fellowship during Tree Luggers, half of the proceeds are given to the specific non-profit that created the referral.  In this way, we are able to assist Indianapolis-based non-profits in funding their efforts.

One of the most important values that the Indiana-based Orr Fellowship promotes is entrepreneurship.  Tree Luggers is a great example of entrepreneurship in action as the Orr Fellows carefully organize, plan, and execute the fundraiser from start to finish.  So what goes into Tree Luggers to ensure its success year in and year out?  Many of the Orr Fellows are "luggers," or those that travel to homes, collect the trees, and then later dispose of the holiday conifers.  Several others use their marketing expertise to help spread the word through social media like Twitter and Facebook, strategically placed fliers in the Indianapolis community, and specified email lists owned by several Orr Fellowship host companies.  We also have fellows that help create partnerships with churches and other non-profit organizations.  Lastly, a couple of fellows take on a financial role so that all donations and referrals are carefully recorded.  To participate in this fundraiser, and save yourself a great deal of time and effort, please sign-up here.  Remaining pick-up dates are:
 

Saturday, January 9th
Saturday, January 16th
Saturday, January 23rd
 

For those that don't know much about the Governor Bob Orr Entrepreneurial Fellowship, it is an Indiana-based non-profit organization that provides jobs for recent graduates in fast growing Indianapolis companies.  Whether you're looking to start a marketing career, an entrepreneurship career, or maybe just a career in business, this is one unique fellowship program like no other.
 

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