By: Victoria Araj

In the United States, breast cancer occurs in one out of eight women and affects men as well.  In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Quicken Loans held a special Awareness Day on Oct. 29 in the Michigan and Cleveland offices.

Team members were able to purchase pink ribbons and pins with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society.  In addition, the Human Resources Team created an internal Web site giving team members access to information about cancer clinical trials, statistics and resource materials from assistance groups in both Michigan and Ohio.

By: Victoria Araj

On Saturday, Oct. 3, the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association held its annual Walk to Defeat ALS on Belle Isle and more than 500 people, including Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, braved rainy weather to raise awareness for the disease that affects someone every 90 minutes.  ALS, (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the cells that aid in muscle control.

This year, Quicken Loans CEO Bill Emerson served as the Corporate Chairman for the Walk and he challenged all Quicken Loans team members and its sister companies to raise $75,000 for the disease that affected both his brother-in-law and a close friend.  Through individual team member contributions, internal auctions for unique prizes, creative team competitions such as raffles, themed lunches and even valet parking for a day, the goal was surpassed and more than $120,000 was raised.  Of the total that was donated, the Cleveland office raised $9,000 and the Scottsdale office raised over $10,000 for their respective chapters.

By Victoria Araj

On a cool, overcast morning, team members from Quicken Loans teamed up with the Motor City Blight Busters to demolish a home about 2 blocks from the organization’s hub on Lahser in Detroit.  Volunteers from other organizations were on hand and teams quickly came together to separate brick, wood and other materials into piles that could be salvaged or disposed. 

While breaking up cement, cleaning out the inside of the home and making it a skeletal structure to demolish, we uncovered some interesting artifacts.  We found stuffed toys, postcards from 1945, an old typewriter and an original 1931 copy of the Detroit Free Press.  This home definitely had a story to tell!  It put up a good fight too!  After stripping the house down to a basic structure, John George, the founder of Blight Busters harnessed a strong chain around the home and tied it to his truck.  He turned on the ignition, pressed play on his CD player and Michael Jackson served as the soundtrack for the pedal to the metal.  The truck launched forward and only part of the house came down.  We realized this would need another attempt to bring it down.  The chain was then wrapped around the upper part of the home and the accelerator was kicked into high gear.  More of the house came down, but still, it would not give up!  We had to manually have a tug-of-war with the remains of the structure and together we brought the final pieces of the house down. 

We continued to organize items into piles and within a few hours, the team felt a sense of accomplishment by removing a blighted home and improving the community.  “What made this special was that we were making a neighborhood safer for those families and children who call it home,” said Kristin Broadley, Loss Mitigation Director at Quicken Loans.

All of the volunteers put in a lot of hard work and muscle into the demolition and we were proud to contribute to the growing list of homes that Blight Busters eradicated this year.