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Pay It Forward: Help For Unemployed

POSTED: Thursday, July 23, 2009
UPDATED: 10:27 am EDT July 23, 2009

Businesses and organizations across Metro Detroit are stepping up to help unemployed friends and neighbors find jobs through Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit’s Pay It Forward campaign.

A celebrity bowling event, free coffee and food and hairstyling discounts are just a few of the ways local businesses are engaging customers to help the unemployed find jobs in the region.

Pay It Forward centers around envelopes to be filled with dollar bills, passed from person to person, until they reach 25 people.

Every $25 dollars collected in a Pay It Forward envelope, or online at PayItForwardDetroit.org, will help provide an entire day of career training for an unemployed Metro Detroiter for a job of the future.

For every 1,000 local people Goodwill Industries puts to work, the organization estimates up to $25 million in wages are earned and spent locally to boost the Metro Detroit economy each year they are on the job.

“Several businesses across the region already have stepped up to help local people secure local jobs through Pay It Forward,” said Mark Lane, director of public relations and special events for Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit.

“The support of those businesses and others will be crucial to our success as we seek to train thousands of people for new jobs right here in Metro Detroit.

We’re looking for additional companies and organizations to engage their employees and customers in helping Goodwill assist Metro Detroiters in become trained, trusted and ready to work.”

Area businesses wishing to support Pay It Forward by hosting an event, offering an incentive for participants or distributing envelopes to employees or customers may contact Mark Lane at (313) 557-8774.

Pay It 4Ward participants can also drop off a completed envelope during the month of July at Drakeshire Lanes in Farmington Hills and receive two free games of bowling.

Caribou Coffee will host Pay It Forward day July 23 at all 19 Metro Detroit stores.

Each location will offer free samples of 20 new items along with giveaways for customers who participate in the campaign.

Pay It Forward participants can also drop off a completed envelope at any Metro Detroit location and receive a free beverage (any size). Additionally, Caribou Coffee will offer participants at each Metro Detroit location the opportunity to win a $100 gift card at the end of the initiative.

At each of its 72 Metro Detroit locations, Flagstar Bank is offering Pay It Forward participants who drop off a completed envelope an opportunity to win tickets to one of many concerts at DTE Energy Music Theatre.

Pay It Forward spokesperson and Detroit Tigers centerfielder Curtis Granderson also will support the campaign.

Granderson will make a donation to Pay It 4ward for every ticket sold to his Grand Kids Foundation “Passport To Wines Of The World with Curtis Granderson” event hosted at Big Rock Chophouse/The Reserve in Birmingham on July 23.

The event will offer more than 300 wines from across the globe and a live bachelor auction featuring Granderson and Tigers teammates Edwin Jackson and Ryan Perry Tickets are $135 for VIP and $85 for general admission, and are available at http://www.grandkidsfoundation.org/passport.

Additional organizations already participating in Pay It Forward, and serving as pickup and drop off locations (unless otherwise noted) include:

Commerce Township: Uptown Grille (3100 E. West Maple Rd.) is offering 10 percent off total bill to anyone who drops off a completed envelope in July.

Madison Heights: Green Lantern (28960 John R Rd.) is offering 10 percent off total bill to anyone who drops off a completed envelope in July.

Mt. Clemens: Bath City Bistro (75 Macomb Place) is offering 10 percent off food bill to anyone who drops off a completed envelope in July.

Romulus: Archway Marketing (7525 Cogswell Rd.) is hosting a monthlong series of fundraising events to support Pay It Forward.

The company, with more than 250 employees, will host silent auctions, bake sales, and bottle drives, with all proceeds benefiting the campaign. Archway Marketing is not a pickup/drop-off site.

Royal Oak: Hair salon Bleach (409 N Main Street) is offering 25 percent off services to anyone who drops off a completed envelope in July.

Shelby Township: White Lotus Salon (48119 Van Dyke Ave.) is offering 25 percent off haircuts to anyone who drops off a completed envelope in July.

In just the past two years, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit has helped 2,500 people in Metro Detroit find a job through its employment training and support programs and has provided career assistance to thousands more throughout the region.

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