Hometown Hospitality was launched by Benchmark Hospitality International as a company-wide community service initiative. Because Benchmark Hospitality International is made up of 26 hotels and resorts nationwide, their organization is able to formalize already existing community involvement programs in these areas. Hometown Hospitality is able to offer the necessary tools for non-involved properties to become engaged in various community programs with the ultimate goal of creating – a little Hometown Hospitality. The organization hopes that through these initiatives that everyone will feel deserving and welcome in their own communities.

According to their website, Hometown Hospitality exclaims that “caring for our communities is a passion, not a past-time”. Here are some ways that Hometown Hospitality has contributed to the community:

1.    Donating Much Needed Vacations to Families Throughout the United States
Benchmark Hospitality International along with the Boys and Girls Club of America partnered up this past January to provide vacations to families in need through the Hometown Hospitality initiative. Vacations are a luxury to most. Whether it is due to finances of family problems, most of the time they are just not an option. These thirty complimentary vacations at various Benchmark Hospitality establishments were awarded to deserving community involved families across the U.S.

2.    Showing Hometown Hospitality to a Community Half Way Across the World
When word got out that a Benchmark employee and his wife were adopting a Haitian child who might have fallen victim to the earthquake in Haiti, employees company-wide leaped into action to aid in relief efforts. Hometown Hospitality not only began to raise money through employee donations, but Benchmark Hospitality International matched those donations and gave all proceeds to the Red Cross relief efforts. Even if it is not a community close to home, Hometown Hospitality is always willing to lend a helping hand to those in need.

3.    Organizing Fun Family Events like Swim and Spin-a-thon at Cheyenne Mountain Resort
This refreshing Hometown Hospitality Event, the 1st annual “Mountain of Hope” Swim & Spin-a-thon Fundraiser, assisted a local soup kitchen through aquatics and fitness at the Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs. While event-goers took part in high intensity activities throughout the day such as swimming, spinning, biking, hauling, and building they went to these great lengths to raise money to benefit a community initiative in need. All the hard work paid off in the end because the event raised $5,500 for this local community involvement establishment.

Founded in 2007, Resort 2 Kindness is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the possibility of endless generosity and unconditional love. Resort 2 Kindness was created from the love of one family committed to making a difference by transforming the world through the actions of so many inspired people who are dedicated to do the same.

According to the Resort 2 Kindness website, the organization’s belief is that “doing little things can make a big impact”. You can make an impact and participate by:

1) Individual “Random Acts of Kindness”
Participants can share Random Acts of Kindness with people in their lives who they know or don’t know. Anyone of your choosing can be a potential recipient – friends, colleagues, family members, neighbors – or a brand new person who crosses your path just walking down the street. Kindness is a gift you can share everyday in a variety of ways. It generally costs you nothing but a moment in time.

2) Resort / Real Estate Sponsors Who Multiply The Kindness
Developers of Resort and Residential communities sponsor every act that R2K participants complete. They make a monetary contribution to the charities of their choice based on their commitment level. One hundred percent of all funds contributed by Resort / Real Estate Sponsors goes directly to the charity. No funds are used to support R2K administratively, so every kindness – and every dollar – goes where it counts!

3) Participating in the organization’s “Give Initiatives”
Every year, Resort 2 Kindness holds Giving Initiatives to give back to people and organizations in need, with the funds raised from their sponsors and Resort 2 Kindness supporters.

The first is “The Big Give,” held in the Spring/Summer of the year. This giving initiative is targeted at an organization whose focus is geared toward helping less fortunate individuals. For the “Big Give” initiative Resort 2 Kindness seeks to make an extraordinary impact on the lives of very ordinary people through monetary contributions and in-kind donations of varying degrees from its donors.

The second annual initiative, “The Little Give,” is held in the Fall/Winter of the year, and aims at helping a specific family or individual in need on a deeply personal level. This initiative only solicits monetary donations and seeks to positively impact any financial burdens a family or individual may be incurring, such as medical or other health needs, a change in a housing situation or other services related to food, shelter, clothing or general well-being.

This year, accomplishing its goal of raising $10,000 for The Little Give 2009, Resort 2 Kindness and its supporters gave one little girl’s organization, The Stink Bug Project, a very big head start. After struggling with her own battle against brain cancer, Allison Winn wanted to share with other children, the positive experience she had after receiving her therapy dog, Coco. Allison started by baking and selling dog biscuits to raise the money needed for a family to adopt a well-trained and rescued dog from the Prison Trained K-9 Program at Colorado Correctional Industries. Now, because of the remarkable generosity of one young girl, and the donations and support from the Resort 2 Kindness Community, The Stink Bug Project is able to touch the lives of so many – from families across the nation stricken with the devastation of childhood cancer, to the dogs that they are able to adopt and rescue from lives of neglect and abuse.

Denver-resident Marcia Donziger is the founder of MyLifeLine Cancer Foundation, a non-profit cancer organization dedicated to people with cancer, and MyLifeLine.org, a free personalized website tool enabling cancer patients and loved ones to share information, updates and photos via one central online support community. The free websites on MyLifeLine.org offer cancer patients an online support community that fosters inspiration, connection and healing, as well as relieves the burden patients feel to keep loved ones updated on their health.

MyLifeLine.org offers users such features as the ability to post photos and updates; access a learning section containing cancer resource links; use a calendar to post the dates of doctor appointments, treatment schedule, and notify friends of visiting hours; read inspirational quotes on every page — and much more.

Marcia has personally experienced the emotional roller coaster of cancer. Marcia was diagnosed with Stage III ovarian cancer in 1997, when she was 27 years old. She discovered that it was emotionally draining to repeat the same information about her condition to everyone she talked to; she also felt guilty about not staying in better touch with family and friends. In 2003, Marcia learned about Lori Arquilla Andersen, a young cancer patient who created her own personal website in order to stay in touch with family and friends. Inspired by Lori, Marcia decided to make a difference for other cancer patients by enabling people to easily set up their own free websites. Sharing updates and managing caring messages via one central website can help everyone touched by cancer to deal with it.

MyLifeLine.org is hosting its third annual fundraising event called Jockeys Juleps & Jazz on May 1. This year’s event is a Kentucky Derby theme and will be at Invesco Field. More information can be found at www.MyLifeline.org.

That’s right, charity.

Okay, so maybe you think of food and funny ads but this year charity is a focus for one of our clients, Ultimate Escapes, a leading destination club.  They are currently running a really cool charitable auction: The Ultimate Escapes Haiti Relief VIP Super Bowl Package Charity Auction.

In an effort to help the victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti, Ultimate Escapes’ charitable arm, Ultimate Giving, has donated two 2010 Super Bowl tickets with the use of a two-bedroom villa.  It is being auctioned off at the CharityBuzz.com “Heal Haiti” online auction site supporting the efforts of the American Red Cross and UNICEF.

The auction is live now (3 bids already, so hurry as it ends on Tuesday) and includes 2 tickets to the Super Bowl in Miami, 2 tickets to the NFL Sponsor Party on February 6 and a 2-night stay at an Ultimate Escapes villa in Miami.  Check it out to support Haiti and feed your football fix at the same time…