For our December Helping Hands event, AW chose to sponsor the Christmas Village Toy Store at the request of one of our visual designers. It is a suggestion that many AW employees embraced, as the excitement of children at Christmas far outweighs our own as adults.

The inspiration came in 2006 for The Christmas Village Toy Store, a collaborative effort among several area churches that is designed to empower and develop at-risk urban communities in Charlotte. The store itself preserves and promotes joy and dignity at Christmas by engaging a free market system, allowing shoppers to pay a discounted price for desired items rather than be forced to accept “charity.”

Both those who donate toys or volunteer their time and shoppers who purchase toys contribute to store profits that are reinvested into the local community through educational grants and scholarships. Because of this, even the shoppers at the Toy Store are “paying it forward” into their own communities.

Addison Whitney was able to donate several boxes and bags full of toys for children ranging in age from infant to teenager. There were dolls, mp3 players, blocks, books, bath accessories and much more. In addition to donating toys, several employees, along with their friends or spouses, volunteered their time to helping the Toy Store prepare and run the shopping events. We were represented as toy pricers and parking lot attendants.

We would like to say thank you to Warehouse 242 and the other Charlotte-area churches who are part of the Christmas Village Toy Store for allowing us the opportunity to give to such an amazing organization. We look forward to being part of the initiative in the future, whether as individuals or as a company.

Sarah is a Charlotte-area junior who has been a Girl Scout for ten years.

She is now in the final stage of earning her Gold Award.

Much like the Eagle Award is to the Boy Scouts of America, the Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts of the USA. Only about 5% of eligible Scouts successfully earn the prestigious award. The Scout must complete 30 hours of leadership work, 40 hours of career exploration, and the 4Bs Challenge during which the scout identifies key needs in her community. After those steps have been taken, she must complete a service project. This service project must extend beyond GSUSA and provide a lasting benefit. It requires a minimum of 65 hours of work.

Sarah says that the homelessness crisis in Charlotte has been a passion of hers for many years, primarily due to her mother’s involvement with the Urban Ministry Center for almost half of Sarah’s life. Because of this, it was an easy decision for Sarah to determine her Gold Award project, as she has grown up working with homeless people.

For her project, called “A Fresh Start,” she is compiling 85 laundry baskets full of basic household items, including dish detergent, washcloths, hangers and sponges, to be donated to the upcoming residents of Charlotte’s newly constructed Moore Place, a housing facility built by the Urban Ministry Center. Moore Place will be Charlotte’s first permanent supportive home built to give a roof to chronically homeless men and women. Sarah’s aim is to provide these baskets as a house warming gift and starter pack.

As a Helping Hands event for November, Addison Whitney collected enough goods to fill two laundry baskets with the household items. These items will benefit two new residents of Moore Place and will make a dramatic impact in getting these new residents settled in their new homes.

Sarah plans to help the residents move in and hopes to continue working with them long after their first bottle of laundry detergent runs out.

If you’d like to put together a basket for Sarah’s project, please visit her website.
You can read more about Moore Place here.

Today marks the one blemish in April’s usually blooming record: Tax Return Day. Eh, well, April is also the beginning of tornado season, but I digress. A post office’s nightmare and a CPA’s dream, tax season gives a whole new light to mathematics and itemization. People find themselves scrambling through old shoeboxes for missing receipts and trying to mentally calculate volunteer work and “charitable” donations they can claim in hopes of squeezing every penny out of their return.

But why April 15th? Who chose this day to make people sweat an audit and pile themselves in papers? So I decided to dig around a little bit, and by a little bit, I went straight to Wikipedia. C’mon, everyone uses it, but no one wants to admit to.

According to the highly distinguished website, Congress was the one to put “tax day” on the calendar. When we, “America”, ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913, which allowed Congress to institute an income tax, they chose March 1st of the following year as the deadline for filing returns. However, with the Revenue Act of 1918, which I probably need to pick up a text book to see what that was about, they up and moved the date to March 15th. It wasn’t until 1955 though, that Congress finally settled on the April 15th deadline. I think it was because April is prettier, but apparently it was to spread out the workload for the IRS. It’s also rumored that the growing middle class was filing more and more returns and the government wanted a little more time to hold on to the money. Sneaky.

Although fulfilled with this great public encyclopedia knowledge about something that I still get my dad to do for me every year (yes, I’m 25), I also don’t want to spread lies. Therefore, I decided I needed to verify this information. After some intense Google searching, I stumbled across an article on CNN from April 15, 2002, which basically laid out the same information verbatim. And everyone trusts CNN.

So there you have it. That’s why April 15th is, well the day it is. So put the remote down, turn your laptop on and get to filling.

Contributed by: Keri Lynch

Charlotte locals may have noticed a new building perched atop Ballantyne Corporate Place. aloft (always spelled with a lowercase a) is a mid-size business boutique hotel created by Starwood Hotels & Resorts that promises swanky accommodations, high-tech conveniences, and a vibrant social atmosphere at affordable nightly rates.


The Charlotte location is just one of nearly 40 openings planned for the end of this year. The chain even has a presence in the virtual world, opening a ‘Second Life’ location in 2008.

So what’s so special about another hotel populating the crowded Ballantyne skyline? While any brand expanding so rapidly during a recession deserves a closer look, aloft is particularly intriguing because it is employing several brand strategies to capture the hearts and wallets of today’s savvy travelers.

First, the aloft brand has been introduced as ‘a vision of W Hotels’. The high-end W chain, of course, is known for its urban-inspired luxury and social atmosphere. In using W as an endorsement rather than as part of the brand itself, aloft can borrow some of the equity of its upscale relative without tying itself so closely to the brand that it can’t eventually stand on its own. This also protects the W brand from the need to compete with aloft’s competitive pricing. The endorsement serves its purpose as a simple and immediate way to reassure new customers that the accommodations will be, as the website suggests, ‘style at a steal.’

Additionally, aloft hotels have chosen to brand several of their amenities. Each establishment features a W XYZ® bar, a Re:charge® fitness center, and a Re:fuel® food and beverage area. These individual brands within the establishment not only serve to accommodate customers, but have the potential to gain their own equity at each location. Customers can rely on a consistent experience every time. By building strong amenity brands within the hotel, aloft is using every angle of the customer experience to drive loyalty and ultimately, repeat business.

Last, but certainly not least, the aloft name itself deserves credit, as it retains a high end tone while still coming across as approachable and attainable. In part inspired by the loft-like 9 foot ceilings found in each room, the name also alludes to the hotel being a step-above-the-rest at this price point.

It will be interesting to watch hotels over the next several months to see if other chains attempt to recreate what Starwood has done with aloft. From a brand perspective, they seem to be doing everything right. Combining that with competitive pricing and product that is relevant for this generation’s weary travelers may be what helps aloft excel through a tough economic time.

Contributed by: Maghan Cook