December 13, 2021
This year we mark a BIG milestone as we celebrate 10 years of LOVE with Bob Rohrman Subaru and Subaru of America Inc through our participation in Subaru's annual Share the Love Event.
During the Share the Love event, for every new vehicle leased or purchased in the specified timeframe, Subaru of America will donate $250 to the charity you select. Meals on Wheels of course is one of them! Visit https://www.subaru.com/share-the-love.html to learn more.
I vividly remember the first time we participated in Subaru's Share the Love Event. It was also our first year of partnering with Bob Rohrman Subaru, so we asked Mr. Rohrman himself to participate in the inaugural event as one of his most beloved characters in our community, "Santa Bob". I highly recommend looking on Youtube for some of Santa Bob's old commercials as they are instant classics!
On the day of the event, we had prepared gift bags for all of our consumers, courtesy of a donation from Bob Rohrman Subaru. Rohrman Subaru then arrived with 5 brand new Subaru Outbacks to deliver our routes for us, with Mr. Rohrman riding along in one of them. Mr. Rohrman, or Santa Bob at this point in time, insisted on putting each gift into the vehicles by himself, and would let out a jolly "Ho, Ho, Ho!" with every gift he placed. Growing up watching his commercials during Saturday morning cartoons, I remember my siblings and I getting quite the laugh out of Santa Bob, but this day was much different. The kindness and compassion Mr. Rohrman showed to us that year is something I will never forget. It was clearly obvious this was not just a marketing ploy for him, he was doing this because he enjoyed helping the community and we will be forever greatful for his participation when he was able to do so. Even when he was not able to participate, he made sure we had everything we needed in subsequent years to ensure our consumers felt a little love during this time. Sadly, Mr. Rohrman passed away in September of last year, but the tradition we started 10 years ago thankfully lives on today.
Here we are a decade later and not much has changed. We had to skip Rohrman Subaru's day of delivering meals for us last year due to the pandemic, but we still held a canned food drive at the dealership that was a HUGE success. These days, not only has Rohrman Subaru grown, but we have as well. We no longer have just 5 routes, we have 11. We no longer have 60 consumers, we have over 200. Rohrman Subaru has experienced growth as well, and is even in a recently remodeled and expanded dealership. They have been the #1 volume Subaru retailer in the midwest for several, if not all of the past 10 years. Despite these changes, it is heartwarming to see us still be able to come together every year to share the love through Subaru's event, especially since many of those that participate from the dealership have done so for several years and look forward to it.
To celebrate 10 years of participation together in the Share the Love Event, not only did Rohrman Subaru bring brand new Subaru's and deliver all of our routes for us once again this year, but they also are holding a canned good drive for us again this year as well throughout the entirety of the Share the Love Event, which is truly a blessing. So please take your canned goods to Rohrman Subaru and thank them for 10 years of love! The canned food drive will provide items for our consumers' "Snow Day" food sacks, which provides a few shelf-stable meals for them to be able to easily prepare in the event we have to close due to winter weather.
We still continue to rise to the challenges that COVID has presented all of us. They say it takes a village, and that couldn't be more true. We are blessed to have such a wonderful community that loves to help eachother during challenging times, which makes that saying "Together, we can deliver" mean so much to us. So thank you once again to Subaru of America, Rohrman Subaru, and Meals on Wheels America, for all of the support each year during the Share the Love Event. I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday season, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! #sharethelove #mealsonwheels
~~Wayne~~
