Central Collision Center Re-Stocks Alicia's House

Alicia's House's newly remodeled space
showcases the organization's awards. 

We had the privilege of visiting Alicia's House Food Pantry Tuesday morning when we dropped off our Thanksgiving Food Drive donations. We were immediately greeted with a warm welcome from Juan and Stella Hernandez, co-founders of Alicia's House. While giving us a tour of their newly redesigned food pantry, we heard stories of struggles and triumphs of running a food pantry in South Chicago Heights.

Alicia's House Food Pantry is an organization close to

Central Collision's heart because it feeds the hungry in our local communities. Alicia's House works to alleviate hunger by providing food at no cost to low-income residents of Crete, Beecher, Steger, Monee, University Park, Grant Park and South Chicago Heights. They recently expanded their efforts to provide toiletries, laundry detergent and flu shots to residents in need.

Central Collision delivered 3 truck
loads of food as a result of its food drive.

Since Alicia's House beginning in 2001, Central Collision has been supporting the food pantry with our annual Thanksgiving Food Drive. We reach out to past and current customers, employees, business partners and the local community to participate in the food drive by donating non-perishable food items. 

Exceeding our previous year's donations, we gathered 1,428 food items in our six offices. Central Collision matched all donations, bringing our grand total to 2,856 items donated.

“We have great people who are fortunate enough to give back and are happy to do so,” said Mike Caruso, owner of Central Collision. “Their generosity exceeds my expectations every year.”

Mike and Nancy Caruso, owners of Central Collision, present their food
donations to Alicia's House Food Pantry.

Located at 17 Paulsen Avenue in South Chicago Heights, Alicia’s House Food Pantry accepts food, clothing and toiletry donations year-round. The food pantry also collects winter coats, gloves, scarves and clothing. 

Consider donating to Alicia's House Food Pantry this holiday season. One small donation can make a local family's holiday complete.

Help Central Collision Feed The Hungry

     Every November, Central Collision hosts a Thanksgiving Food Drive to alleviate the hunger in our local communities during the holiday season. Our goal is to ensure no family in our communities has to go without food on Thanksgiving. We are committed to our communities and, as a successful small business, have a responsibility to give back. 

Hunger in Illinois remains a large issue. Based on 2011 research:

•     More than 1 in 5 children (22.2%) in Illinois face a constant struggle against hunger

•     More than 745,000 children in Illinois are at risk of hunger

•     More than 1.9 million people are considered food insecure, meaning they do not have regular access to nutritious food

•     38% of food insecure households exceed poverty guidelines

      Through the generous donations of our employees and customers, we collected 1209 food donations in our 2011 Thanksgiving Food Drive. Central Collision Center matched all donations, bringing 2418 food items to Alicia's House Food Pantry.

     We would like to exceed our 2011 Thanksgiving Food Drive donation total, but we need your help. Please bring non-perishable food items, such as soup and canned vegetables, to any of our 6 offices between Thursday, Nov. 1 and Tuesday, Nov. 20. Our offices are located in Peotone, Mokena, Crete, New Lenox, Oak Forest and Tinley Park. 

     All food donations will benefit Alicia's House, a 501c3 non-profit food pantry in South Chicago Heights. Alicia's House works to alleviate hunger and the problems associated with hunger in Crete, Beecher, Steger, Monee, Peotone, University Park and South Chicago Heights.

Central employees deliver our 2011 
donations to Alicia's House.

            Central Collision Center will match all food donations. We are happy to share our blessings with others and hope you will be able to share yours as well. 

      If you would like more information about our Thanksgiving Food Drive, please contact Marissa at marcaruso@centralcollision.com.

__                                                                                                                                                          

No Kid Hungry Illinois (2012). www.nokidhungry.org
Hunger in Illinois (2012). Feeding Illinois. www.feedingillinois.org

Central Collision Center Verifies Use of OEM Airbag Components

In response to the recent concerns about counterfeit airbags, Central Collision Center would like to ensure its customers, insurance partners and local communities that vehicles repaired at any of our six locations under Central Collision ownership are not at risk.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a statement today alerting vehicle owners and repair professionals to the danger of counterfeit air bags. Consumers who purchased their vehicles new or know their entire vehicle’s history, including if an airbag was replaced, are not at risk.

Vehicles repaired at any of the six Central Collision Center locations are not risk. Our company installs strictly OEM, original equipment manufacturer, airbags during repairs. Central Collision Center also strictly uses OEM parts relating to the Supplemental Restraint System (SRS), which includes seatbelts, seatbelt buckles and seatbelt retractors.

For more information on the advisory, visit www.safecar.gov. For more information about Central Collision Center, visit our website.

All Company Meeting Notes

Last Wednesday, 87 Central Collision Center employees gathered in our new classroom at our Mokena location for our semi-annual all company meeting. The meeting gave us a chance to welcome new employees, learn more about our wellness program and hear about upcoming company events.

Patty Burke, human resources manager for Central Collision, first explained the success of our wellness program. In our inaugural year, 81% of Central Collision employees were fully engaged in our pedometer program through Virgin HealthMiles. We also had 94% of eligible employees participate in our health screenings, which is above the best in class benchmark of 90%.

Burke also announced the results from Central Collision’s Race to the Finish pedometer challenge.  Central Collision of Peotone won the challenge with 204,893 average steps per employee. Ten employees had more than 200,00 steps and the employee with the most steps had more than 300,00 steps.

Mike Caruso, president and owner of Central Collision, then took the floor to announce upcoming events at Central. Some Central’s favorite traditions take place in the fall, and the excitement among employees was clear when Caruso announced them. Our annual chili cook-off lets our employees showcase their cooking skills. Each location selects a winner from its individual chili cook-off to compete in the all company challenge. Employees sample all entries and vote for their favorite. Central Collision’s winner then submits their winning recipe in the Frankfort Chamber of Commerce Chili Cook-Off in January.

One of our most exciting days in the fall is our annual Halloween costume. Each location picks a group costume to dress up in and theme to decorate their office. Our management company travels to each location on Halloween to judge on the following categories:  originality of theme, creativity, effort, execution of overall theme, participation and office decorations. New to the contest this year is a fan favorite category. Our judges will pick an overall winner, but our Facebook fans will decide the fan favorite by liking one of the location’s pictures in our Halloween album. Visit our Facebook page to cast your vote later this month.

Our all company meeting helped us reconnect and refocus before the end of the year. We are excited for our upcoming wellness challenges and company events in the next few months. Thank you to all of the employees who helped make this meeting a great success.

Summer at Central

Can you believe it's September already? Summer flew by again! Summer is one of our favorite times at Central Collision Center. Here's how we stayed busy with summer fun:

We practiced for the upcoming baseball season:

Celebrated Cinco De Mayo:

                                                  

Brought the beach to work:

                               

 

 Made some special ice cream deliveries with the ice cream truck:

Practiced our grilling:

                          

Finally, we closed out our summer at Central Collision by walking in the Frankfort Fall Festival Parade Labor Day weekend. Thanks for another fun summer!

31 Years and Growing

            Central Collision Center's goal is to provide exceptional customer service at each of our locations, regardless of how many locations we develop. The key piece to providing a unique customer experience is culture. I have always placed a strong emphasis on company culture because I do not want to just be another business or a standard employer. I want Central employees to feel comfortable at work, enjoy their jobs, learn and have fun. As we grow, my goal is to introduce our company culture into our new locations while maintaining it at our existing locations. Our company culture is one aspect of Central Collision that will never change.

            Currently, we are revisiting what the Central brand means to us, and what we would like our name to mean to customers. Our goal is to be as transparent through this process as possible. We have asked our employees their opinions through a 3-part survey. Questions covered everything from company strengths/weaknesses to biggest challenges and needed improvements. It was very encouraging to read each employee's answers and realize just how much they care about our company.
           We will share our answers with you over the next few weeks on our Facebook page and Twitter. Now, we want to hear from you. Please feel free to comment on our posts or respond to our tweets about your image of and experience with Central Collision Center.

            One major aspect of updating our brand is creating consistency throughout our locations. Whether our processes, physical office space or communication tools, we would like everything to be consistent. As a result, we will develop our brand identity as an industry leader in quality, competitive pricing and customer care.
            I am extremely excited to share our branding experience with you, and look forward to revealing some much needed updates. 

Mike Caruso

Founder, President and Owner

Central Collision Center

 

Shaping Up at Central

            Central Collision Center has taken several steps to create a healthier workplace for our employees over the past year. Our employees are family to us, and we want to keep our family as healthy as possible. With the ever-increasing costs of health care in mind, our objective is to provide education and awareness that can lead to change in poor habits and a decline in healthcare expenses.

“Our goal and purpose is to gradually change habits that will result in our employees becoming healthier while having fun along the way,” said Patty Burke, human resources manager for Central Collision Center. “We have committed resources to make this happen and are confident that continuing on the path of workplace wellness will enhance the lives of employees.”

Here are some ways the Central team is improving its health:

Health Screenings:

            On July 17 and 18, 57 Central employees received health screenings through our wellness programs. Screenings alerted employees to potential health risks they may have, such as high cholesterol or blood pressure. Complete summaries of employees’ individual screenings were available online, allowing each employee to examine his or her results in depth. 

Pedometer Program:

Last September, Central Collision introduced the Virgin HealthMiles Pedometer Program in all of our locations. Each employee received a pedometer, which tracks his or her steps for the day. Number of steps correlate with HealthMiles. When employees accumulate a certain number of miles, they receive rewards. Prizes include free lunches, movie tickets, Visa gift cards, health club memberships, raffle tickets and more.

Employees can earn additional HealthMiles for completing their online Virgin HealthMiles profiles. On these profiles, employees can complete a health snapshot, add in their measurements, log exercise sessions and create personalized workout plans.

To celebrate one year of wellness, Central Collision employees will compete in the Race to the Finish Challenge. From Aug. 18 to 31, employees will race to accumulate as many steps as possible. The location with the highest average steps will win additional HealthMiles.

            We are making wellness a priority at Central Collision Center, and we encourage you to do the same. Look for us at the New Lenox Mind Over Miles 8K/1 mile run where many of our employees will be running! Come join us or cheer on our team!