The Randy Wise Automotive Team (RWAT) goes above and beyond to reach out to the community, offer helpful services, monetary donations, and support when needed, especially to those organizations and programs involving children and families. Randy Wise encourages charitable work and donations, and sets the tone by example.Just this Christmas, he donated a minivan to a single mother and her four sons who were in desperate need of transportation.  The search for this van became a team effort – Vice President and son, Chris Wise, and General Manager Rick Porritt put forth a lot of effort to find the best and most reliable car that would be perfect for this family.   On the day the gift was delivered, many of the staff eagerly gathered around to watch this miracle unfold.   

Chris Wise has followed in his father’s footsteps and has served on the United Way Campaign for six years – he is now the Campaign Chair for Genesee County. Through his efforts, and the generosity of the RWAT employees, they have raised over $250,000 for the United Way programs, many of which serve children and families in our community.  This is the largest dealer group donation in the state!  Chris thinks outside of the box and makes it enjoyable and exciting for the Team to be involved in the United Way.  He organizes an annual chili cook-off and holds raffle drawings at the company picnic in which all proceeds go to the United Way. During the chili cook off lunches, he has Ron Butler from the United Way, come speak and introduce a program or organization that is being funded by United Way dollars.  Often a person that has benefited from these programs comes to speak as well.  Rather than just asking for donations, Chris puts in time and effort to make the campaign fun and educational.

Several years ago, another opportunity presented itself to Randy.  The American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) had always hosted a tournament in Genesee County hosted by Buick. When Buick was no long able to sponsor the tournament, Randy enthusiastically took it on!  He felt strongly that this tournament not only brought something positive to Genesee County, but was another way to encourage young people to be active and achieve their goals.  Currently, RWAT is both a national and local sponsor of the American Junior Golf Association, and the Randy Wise Junior Open is hosted every July.  Chris and Randy work very closely with the AJGA to make sure this event is successful and fun for the youth.

RWAT promotes safety and therefore they host and sponsor regular Hurley Child Safety Seat Events at their different stores, as well as the DNA Life Print Child Safety Event where parents can get their child’s DNA documented. Both of these events are free to families.

Last year Chris organized a company wide coin drive competition to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network at Hurley.  The winning dealership would get a cook-out lunch made by Chris and Randy.  Well over $2000 was raised in the coin drive in under four weeks!  Additionally, the company summer picnic raffle proceeds went to CMN at Hurley the previous summer.  RWAT was able to donate over $5000 to CMN because of the generous team members and creative strategies to make the charitable giving fun.

The RWAT General Managers are very active in helping the communities around their stores.  The Randy Wise Automall in Flint participates in the Ford Drive 4 UR School at both Swartz Creek and Carmen Ainsworth to help raise money for the local high schools.  They also participate in the Hyundai Hope on Wheels program that helps fight and raise awareness of childhood cancer.  On top of these two larger programs, the Automall has sponsored the Swartz Creek and Holly Athletic Departments, Swartz Creek Center Stage, and donated magazines to Swartz Creek and Carmen Ainsworth High Schools.

The Randy Wise Buick GMC store in Fenton hosts many of the events listed above. On tops of this, they “adopt” a family every Christmas as a group to provide for. They also sponsor local school events in Fenton such as the Wounded Warrior Project at Fenton High School, and they donated drivers training cars to Fenton as well. General Manager Rick Porritt and his wife have donated their time to install blinds at Whaley Children’s Center, which is funded through the Flint Auto Dealer Association where Rick is past-president and Chris is current president.

Randy Wise Chevrolet Buick in Milan, Michigan are just as giving as the Genesee County stores. They donate to numerous area schools and sponsor Creative Safety Promotion in which a police officer assists and teaches children about safety. They have generously donated to the Father Mcgivney House, for young men entering the priesthood, and have given money and goods to local shelters.

As you can see through the many sponsorships, education is highly prioritized by Randy Wise.  Within the dealerships, internships are offered with Northwood University, and they are active in the Service Technician Training program.  Furthermore, numerous young individuals are invited in for summer work, and “Take your child to work day” is always encouraged and well attended.

Additionally, RWAT regularly participates in Toys for Tots and has offered monetary donations and goods, which include items for children to the Soup Kitchen and Homeless Shelter in Flint, and Carriage Town Ministries.  Giving and supporting the community, especially to children and families is a way of life with the RWAT. In recent years, Randy and Chris have held a Summer Picnic. They felt strongly about providing a day where families could have fun, relax, and spend time together. This is not a typical picnic – to make it memorable for the children, the picnic has numerous giant inflatables, pony rides, balloon animals and face painting, balloon toss, ice cream truck, and more! Randy and Chris both say that the best part of the day is seeing the children’s eyes light up with excitement, and seeing the families enjoying time playing together.

All of the events, sponsorships, and details listed above are only a list of the most recent work done over a long career, and cannot show all of the hard work, enthusiasm, and devotion that goes into these causes.  This truly is a wonderful group of people, led by extraordinary men who set a great example of helping others.