Well, not at Algood anyway. Don’t get me wrong. The Ice Bucket Challenge is doing great things for a worthy cause. And last week, one of our distributors, Caster Connection, even used our Ice Wheels in their quirky take on the ALS Challenge. We are honoured to have our products being used for such a charitable purpose and proud to answer the challenge by donating $100 to The ALS Association. But at Algood, supporting the community and charitable causes is way more than this one campaign. It’s part of who we are and the way we do business.

A lesson that I learned from late father Max and from my Jewish upbringing is that we all have a responsibility to care for the community and the individuals within it. On this issue my father led by example by providing financial support to and involving himself in dozens of organizations. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a relatively new term that describes the impact that companies can have on the community. At Algood we’ve been practicing CSR for over 45 years.

For the past 16 years we have organized and been the lead supporter of a golf tournament that raises money for children with special educational needs. This is a cause that was very dear to my father and although none of his kids required any related services, he worked tirelessly and personally raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. We started the tournament both to pay tribute to my dad and to continue his amazing work. It’s not a high profile cause. Kids needing special education don’t look different than other kids. It’s tough to raise the money but we have done it to give back to the community and to invest in our children. Over the years the tournament has raised over a million dollars. And that’s not all that we do. We support a whole range of causes including hospitals, healthcare organizations and schools.

For us at Algood, success isn’t just measured by the bottom line. It’s what you do with that profit that defines you. We’re not a corporate subdivision. We’re a family company and our values and reputation are very important to us. Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” I couldn’t agree more.