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Al Brodeur's Auto Body Hosts First
Al Brodeur’s Auto Body Hosts First Annual Spring Egg Hunt
Al Brodeur’s Auto Body of Marlborough welcomed this spring season in a very special way!
Early last month, the body shop launched its first annual Spring Egg Hunt for the Marlborough community – a fun activity for families that supported local businesses and nonprofit organizations.
“It’s very important to me to do things for the community, and I wanted to do something positive that would make people happy and excited,” shares Molly Brodeur, the shop’s owner and immediate past president of AASP/ MA.
To make it a surprise and keep it fair for all – including her team at the shop – she didn’t announce the egg hunt until it was all ready to go. Just one of her part-time employees was in on it, helping her work out the best way to enact it.
With her 12-year-old son Caden (her “official egg hider”) in tow, she set out to hide 22 jumbo eggs (one for every member of the Al Brodeur team) all around Marlborough in public areas such as schools and parks and along the city’s “Museum in the Streets,” a walking history tour.
“We wanted to make it a little challenging, but not so hard that you’d spend an hour looking for one egg.”
Each egg included a gift card from one of five family Marlborough businesses – Trombetta’s Farm, a mini-golf and garden center; APEX Entertainment, a facility offering arcade games, bowling, go-karts and more; Plaster Fun Time, a drop-in art center for kids offering fun items to paint; Word on the Street, a new bookstore catering to young readers; and Altitude Trampoline Park.
The egg hunt was a hit and very well received. All it took was one Facebook post, and all 22 eggs were found in a matter of a few hours. Every family that found an egg received a $100 gift certificate to Al Brodeur’s for any service they offer, and each egg finder was also entered into a raffle to win a free auto detail from the shop.
In addition, Brodeur donated $1,000 each to three organizations – Kits for Kids; which provides comfort to children entering foster care; Sweats for Vets, which outfits homeless veterans with New England sportswear; and Team Sharing, which supports families who have lost a child to addiction.
“It was three-fold; I wanted to do something for the families and residents of Marlborough while supporting our business community and local nonprofits.”
entered into a contract with the insurer to work at a specific rate, and then the insurance industry tries to indicate that it’s a rate that all body shops should work at – not taking into account where the body shop is located and not taking into account the level of expertise, equipment and certifications at a particular shop.”
Penacho, who has hosted his WSAR show for the past eight years, was grateful to have Papageorg join him to discuss issues affecting consumers and collision repairers alike.
“Part of my program is devoted to informing people, whether it be about things pertaining to car insurance, claims,
PROTECTING CONSUMERS AND THE COLLISION INDUSTRY
MASSACHUSETTS 12-year-old Caden Nesbitt had the important job of hiding the specially bagged eggs.
AASP/MA’s Papageorg and Penacho...(cont.)
inspections or leasing or purchasing a vehicle,” he tells New England Automotive Report. “Lucky has so much information for consumers, and he’s so knowledgeable about issues in the industry. He was right on the mark in explaining a lot of things that people didn’t know.”
Listen to “Everything Auto with Mike Penacho” every Monday from 2pm-3pm at wsar.com. A recording of the March 22 show with guest Lucky Papageorg is available at aaspma.org/ everything-auto. See page 18 of this issue for more information on AASP/MA’s current legislative work.
