The holiday season is here. And while some are spending time with their families, one local business is making sure frontline workers keep smiling through the challenging times.
MasterBrand Cabinets decided to give back to local law enforcement in November and delivered baskets from Chocolate Bliss to all law enforcement departments in the county, including Jasper, Huntingburg, and Ferdinand Police Departments, the town marshal’s office in Holland, the Dubois County Sheriff’s Office, and the Indiana State Police Jasper Post.
In addition to the gift baskets, MasterBrand also donated $1,000 to the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police to support their Cops and Kids program. The annual event pairs local law enforcement officers with children from low-income households to shop for clothes and toys during the holiday season.
It’s all part of a county-wide initiative called Spreading Smiles.
It was first started by Jasper Engines’ giving circle, JETT in October. In an effort to bring smiles to employees’ faces at Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center in Jasper, JETT surprised staff with baskets of treats from Jasper Gift Baskets.
Kyle Lueken, a general manager at Jasper Innovative Solutions and the husband of MasterBrand’s Shauna Lueken, was part of the JETT team that came up with the idea to give back to the hospital. When Shauna first overheard her husband discussing the planned donation, she knew there was an opportunity to build the good deed into an even bigger project.
“Knowing how impactful social media can be, it really got me thinking of different ways to start
a campaign to keep this movement going,” Shauna said. “We all need a bit of a morale boost
because we are doing the best we can – these little acts of kindness can really turn someone’s
day into something special.”
Shauna took the idea of bringing businesses together to continually lift up frontline and
essential workers to MasterBrand’s marketing team and the Spreading Smiles campaign was
born. The idea is for a local business to support a different group each month that might need a
morale boost by delivering a surprise donation.
“The joy you see on their faces is heartwarming,” Shauna said about the donations being made.
“And the fact that we were able to support a small business by purchasing the gift baskets local
was the cherry on top. My goal is to keep this movement going for six consecutive months, but
I’d be thrilled to see it continue throughout 2022.”
Jasper Group and German American Bank have both stepped up to give back as well. Other
businesses that are interested in spreading smiles are encouraged to reach out to learn how to
join the campaign in 2022.
Any Dubois County business interested in helping to keep the initiative going can reach out to
Shauna Lueken at social@masterbrand.com.
