Garrett Scott, COO, Kipp Scott GMC, Red Deer (rdnewsNOW File photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

Lending A Hand

Scottsville Group providing community support during COVID-19

Apr 23, 2020 | 2:45 PM

A local auto dealership is driving up extra support for the community during the COVID-19 crisis with multiple initiatives that aim to give back.

The Scottsville Group is assisting the Salvation Army, Mustard Seed, and Canadian Blood Services to address their areas of greatest need.

Garrett Scott, COO of Kipp Scott GMC, says Scott Subaru, along with Subaru Canada, is supporting Red Deer’s Salvation Army with a $10,000 donation for urgent COVID relief efforts such as feeding, sheltering and other needs.

“Subaru Canada has been a great business partner with us and they came to the plate too and helped top-up our donation amount to them (Salvation Army),” explains Scott. “They actually are doing it for every dealer across Canada, which I think is huge and says a lot about that manufacturer.”

Scott says the money should provide a much-needed boost for the organization.

Icy Roads

RCMP says travel not recommended on QEII north of Red Deer

Dec 21, 2024

University Magazine

RDP ranked 17th among top culinary schools in Canada

Dec 21, 2024

JANUARY 21 ONLY

Ponoka starting Christmas tree pick up in January

Dec 20, 2024

“The Salvation Army had to get another vehicle on the road – maintenance worthy, that sort of thing,” says Scott. “Then they needed some additional funds just to help out with some extra-needed supplies and equipment for the new level of demand that they have.”

Kipp Scott GMC has also offered support to the Mustard Seed to help with food deliveries for local youth. Scott says they are still delivering about 2,000 children’s lunches per day, and are in need of volunteer drivers to deliver the food. He says the dealership will provide a vehicle(s), the fuel, and any staff who are able to help the organization out on weekdays.

“With schools being closed, distributing that stuff has become a little bit more challenging,” says Scott. “Just because school is out, doesn’t mean that any of those problems have changed. That’s something we’re pretty happy that we can do because they’re just overwhelmed with the requests, and with locations of the deliveries opening up to being so vast, they just can’t keep up with one vehicle.”

Finally, Scott has also encouraged his employees to consider donating blood for Canadian Blood Services.

“Canadian Blood Services is important to me,” says Scott. “I’ve donated a number of times, we have a few staff, and one staff member in particular whose donated close to 100 times. It doesn’t always necessarily need to be $10,000 or vehicles or that kind of thing, the little things are really something that everybody can do.”

In terms of COVID-19’s impact on Kipp Scott GMC, Scotts says no layoffs have occurred for them as of yet, other than those who have chosen to take a temporary layoff to self-isolate for safety reasons.

“There’s a lot of companies out there that have done a lot of good trying to keep their employees on, and I think that message needs to be relayed properly, he exclaims. “We’re probably OK til about August, so we’ll have to take a serious look then. We are running at a reduced capacity, and are anywhere between 30-60 per cent down on each different brand and that’s just through the month of April and the last bit of March.”

Scott concludes he’s proud of the way his staff has pulled together during the pandemic.

“They’ve been great with the safety precautions we have to take now,” says Scott. “We properly distance ourselves everyday, we’ve got everyone working as a team to make sure we’ve got all these touch points, all these surfaces, all these areas that customers or we may use frequently are getting wiped down with proper disinfectant and that sort of thing. They’ve just done a fabulous job.”