Casco Signs, Inc. is a full-service sign shop that makes use of its 52,000 square feet of production/manufacturing space to do everything from awnings to wraps to custom LED lighting.
But fabrication and installation aren’t the only things that make up its full line of offerings—giving back to the community via charity work is also an important part of the shop.
“We’ve been blessed as a company,” says Cheryl Crutchfield, CEO, Casco Signs, “therefore we need to pay it forward to other people. We want people to realize that it’s not always about us; it’s about other people and what we can do to help them.”
Some of the ways in which the company has “paid it forward” include volunteering with Habitat for Humanity and the Special Olympics. Much of the charity work also has a personal connection. Casco supports MS organizations in honor of an employee’s son who was diagnosed with the disease, and the shop also works with the Arc of Cabarrus, the leading advocacy organization for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities and their family members, as a result of Crutchfield’s lifelong desire to help disabled children.
In fact, one of the most recent charity projects the shop worked on was also a very personal one.
Over the past decade, Crutchfield’s best friend and stepmom were both diagnosed with breast cancer, so she has felt a connection to Susan G. Komen’s goal of finding a cure. Every October for the past few years, Casco has decked its location out in pink for breast cancer awareness, and it sends a team of employees (deemed Casco’s “Girls”) to participate in the Komen Charlotte Race for the Cure® event.
But this year, the shop wanted to go bigger. Casco wrapped its new, customized 2013 Altec LS63 crane truck in pink vinyl. Shop installers donated their time to get the wrap done, applying pink 3M™ Wrap Film Series 1080 vinyl to the truck cab, along with vinyl decals of the cause’s pink ribbon and a Casco’s “Girls” logo.
“We were quite impressed with the way it came out,” says Jennifer Harper, project manager, Casco Signs. “The guys here were very willing to step in, and the drivers and their crew all wore a pink shirt everyday through the month of October.”
They took the truck to the local Race for the Cure event and invited survivors and those fighting the disease to sign it. “It was a lot more emotional than I expected it to ever be,” says Crutchfield. “I think it also allowed people, who are just beginning the fight, to see that there’s hope.”
The wrap stayed on through November, and the truck participated in the local Christmas parade to further honor those impacted by this disease.
By Ashley Bray
Photos (top to bottom): Karen Goforth/Irresistible Portraits by Karen Goforth; Casco Signs
