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Driving Growth: People or Brands?
Company Spotlight: Primerica
Industry with Heart: Signature HomeStyles
Young Company Focus: B's Purses
Thailand: A Rising Power

Industry with Heart: Signature HomeStyles

Signature HomeStyles is making a donation from each sale of its Razzle Dazzle Tealight sets (above) to support Homes for Our Troops in the United States and Ronald McDonald Houses in Canada.

Signature HomeStyles is a company founded on making a difference by establishing a beautiful home environment and providing fulfilling opportunities for success through family- and time-friendly careers. Signature HomeStyles believes in these four tenets for a value-centered life: Family is where the future begins; Home is the core of family life and brings families together; Home is where lasting traditions are carried on and new traditions are born; and The company's products turn a house into a home, creating a warm and comfortable environment where families flourish.

In keeping with those tenets, Signature HomeStyles has committed to help rebuild and remodel homes for those in need, and it encourages its employees and representatives to participate. "Making a difference, one home at a time through our charitable efforts, is merely an extension of Signature HomeStyles' mission," says Cari Christopher, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. "We are committed to helping create home environments where families can flourish."

Homes for Our Troops

The most recent charitable endeavor for Signature HomeStyles involves partnering with Homes for Our Troops by providing promotional fund-raising and home décor products to help build and remodel barrier-free homes for the nation's severely wounded veterans. "Homes for Our Troops still has a long list of brave, young Americans severely disabled from their service in Iraq and Afghanistan," says John Gonsalves, Homes for Our Troops Founder and President. "These patriotic Americans urgently need homes built or adapted to their special needs. We would not be able to build homes without the commitment of companies like Signature HomeStyles."

To help raise funds for Homes for Our Troops, Signature HomeStyles launched the Razzle Dazzle Tealight promotion. Through this promotion, $1 of every U.S. purchase is donated to Homes for Our Troops. The company also instituted a promotion in which hostesses can donate their Free Product Dollars to Homes for Our Troops.

This charity program is especially meaningful to Joi Hasz, Senior Director for Signature HomeStyles. She comes from a long line of military men and women and is a former member of the South Dakota National Guard. "I think it's just wonderful that Signature HomeStyles can be involved with supporting an organization such as Homes for Our Troops, where we can give back something to the men and women who are fighting for our country and our freedom," she says. "The troops are making sacrifices by leaving their homes, families and careers behind to fight for our country. I feel honored and privileged to be able to give just a little back in return."

Joi's brother and two of her nephews are serving in Iraq, and they echo her appreciation for Signature HomeStyles' involvement in the mission of Homes for Our Troops. "As a soldier currently serving in Iraq, it is a very nice feeling to know that there are companies like Signature HomeStyles giving so much support to us soldiers," says Staff Sgt. Brent Loudenslager, Joi's brother. "Homes for Our Troops is a notable charity, and Signature HomeStyles is a big part of that charity with the sponsorship it provides."

Rebuilding Together

For more than 10 years, Signature HomeStyles also has given its time, energy and financial support to Rebuilding Together, an organization whose mission is to preserve and revitalize houses and communities, assuring that low-income homeowners-from the elderly and disabled to families with children-live in warmth, safety and independence. In 2006, Rebuilding Together changed communities across the nation by saving or restoring 8,900 houses and nonprofit facilities, with 267,000 volunteers serving 1,897 communities and donating $98 million in market value.

Signature HomeStyles is helping to restore the Reskin Historic Home in Glendale Heights, Ill.

"Since 1995, Signature HomeStyles has supported Rebuilding Together through donations totaling $2.5 million in furniture, home décor and gift baskets," Cari Christopher says. "Employees and representatives also donate their time and energy to restore the homes of elderly and disabled people around the country." Signature HomeStyles received the Vision for Tomorrow Award from the Direct Selling Association for the charitable efforts of its employees and representatives.

"My team's volunteers here in Texas agree that helping elderly, disabled and disadvantaged people bring their homes back to their original condition was a most heartwarming experience," says Linda Fredrikson, a Signature HomeStyles Team Leader who has been involved in Rebuilding Together for several years. "Working hard for 10 to 12 hours never felt so good," she says. "The often-tearful gratitude expressed by the homeowners at the end of the day was the icing on the cake."

Ronald McDonald House Charities

As a young mother, Madolyn Johnson, President and Founder of Signature HomeStyles, learned firsthand the financial and emotional strain a serious illness can put on a family when her young daughter battled a chronic lung condition. Ronald McDonald House Charities supports 12 Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada and provides a home for families of children undergoing treatment at nearby hospitals. Since July 2006, Signature HomeStyles has donated $2 from every Canadian Razzle Dazzle Tealight Set purchase to this cause on behalf of its Canadian customers.

The Village of Glendale Heights

In 2004, Signature HomeStyles settled into a new home in Glendale Heights, Ill., a community devoted to preserving its rich heritage and history. They believe that defining the character of the present by looking to the past guides the development of the future. Continuing the spirit of the company's focus on the home as the center of a flourishing family and community, Signature HomeStyles became involved with this Chicago suburb by partnering with the Glendale Heights Historical Committee to establish the Community Creates Home program.

Signature HomeStyles became involved with the project to restore the Reskin Historic Home. "Hearing about the village's efforts to renovate one of its original farmhouses, we volunteered to help decorate the home," Cari Christopher says. "The village is renovating the home one room at a time, and we volunteered to decorate as they renovate. Beginning with the parlor, Signature HomeStyles donated furniture and accessories to complete the room."

Signature HomeStyles is committed to its mission of helping to provide comfortable, beautiful homes to those in need throughout the country, and its efforts have not gone unnoticed.