by M. Leslie Palmer

A car wash does not seem to be a very big deal. However, when a fledgling organization gets an unexpected communication offering the proceeds of a Haunted Car Wash to be held the weekend prior to Halloween, the wheels start to turn.

“SVPSA’s power of connectivity can make good things happen for organizations.”

We get all of our ducks in a row for an email blast, social media post and the rest. However, when you are the board chair, you start to wonder, how did they know about us? 

And so the hunt began. Mary Japhet is the local PR person for All American Car Wash with four locations in the greater San Antonio area. The location at 18403 Rim Drive has decided to support Students of Service San Antonio (SOS). I’ve known Mary for a long time and I think, isn’t that nice of Mary. 

Upon further inquiry to Mary, she claims to not have known a thing about SOS but she had asked for input from none other than SVPSA’s Executive Director, Becky Dinnin. Mary inquired about youth serving organizations, as that was the criteria from the company, and Becky gave her a list of agencies SVPSA has worked with and SOS came out the winner.

SOS is an organization that is interwoven with Social Venture Partners. The Executive Director, Amir Samandi, was in the first fellowship class and has been a champion Catchafire user. I serve as the Board Chair for SOS, and am a Partner and Board Member of Social Venture Partners. 

This story shows how small actions can have big outcomes. How the power of connectivity can make good things happen for organizations and in the case of SOS, young people striving to be leaders and global citizens.