Ray Skillman a HERO! - Page 2

BlueOval Ralph · 09-23-2011, 10:31 AM

Dealer ads save school sports, art programs
Strapped district planned hefty student fees, but Skillman reached out to "future customers'
In addition to helping fund programs in the local school district, auto dealer Ray Skillman helps out the LIttle League, too. He gets an appreciative hug from one of the players.

Indiana auto dealer Ray Skillman was incensed.
He had just heard that his local school system was so strapped for funds that it was going to charge students a fee to play football this fall.
Forget that, he decided. Instead, he tapped the advertising budget for his dealership group, which has 17 franchises spread over nine locations outside Indianapolis.
"We told the school system, "We'll pay for it,'" Skillman says. ""All of it: the football programs, the other sports programs, the school bands, the art programs. Just add it up. We'll pay for it.'"
Before local football practice started this summer, a deal emerged with the Center Grove Community School Corp. amounting to a $1 million-plus advertising contract. For five years, Ray Skillman Auto Group will pay $210,000 a year for sports, plus another $10,000 a year for the school system's fine arts programs, including school bands, drama clubs and choirs.
With that arrangement, the school board in the unincorporated community 10 miles south of Indianapolis has dropped its plan to charge every high school athlete and cheerleader in the district $170 a season to participate. Middle school athletes were going to be levied $80, arts program participants were to be hit with their own fees, and some coaching salaries were in question until Skillman picked up the tab.
"Real budget issues'
"We've had some real budget issues," says Richard Arkanoff, superintendent of the eight-school, 7,800-student system. "The decision to charge those fees was a tough one. But Mr. Skillman called up my board president one day out of the blue. He told her he'd been thinking about how hard it would be for a working family to come up with $170, or for somebody who might be making minimum wage. He said he wanted to take care of all the fees."
And Skillman's gift has been followed by others. Says Arkanoff: "He's really opened the door for us. Since he stepped in, a local hospital also came in to advertise and pay for some new stadium bleachers. And we're now talking to two more entities."
In return for Skillman Auto Group's funding, Center Grove will allow Skillman to advertise his auto group around the sports program. The football scoreboard will contain a message from Ray Skillman Auto Group. The stadium's concession stand will bear words from Skillman, as will the basketball court scoreboard. Other specifics are being ironed out as the Center Grove Trojans kick off their fall games.
"It seems like the whole world has fallen on hard times," says Skillman, 70 and the grandfather of 13. "Our teachers don't earn enough. Our policemen and firefighters don't earn enough. More businesses need to get involved with their community."
"We spend millions on advertising," Skillman says of his auto group. "So we understand advertising, and we know who are our market is.
"But this is also our community. I have five franchises in Center Grove, and also sell hundreds of used cars there," he says.
His auto group, with 750 employees, expects to retail about 19,000 new and used vehicles this year.
"When that stadium is full on a Friday night, those are my future customers. They are the parents of my future customers. They are my current customers. They're our current employees and the families of our employees. They are our future employees -- salespeople, technicians, phone operators and managers. We have to compete for good employees. We'd hire 100 people today if we could find the right F&I people, the right technicians and the right personnel," he says.
"So will we get any return on our investment?" he asks. "Yes, we're going to get a huge return."
He says that over the summer, his stores had customers come in to shop, buy vehicles or use the service departments in response to the news of Skillman's sponsorship plan.
Hated school, loved cars
Truth be told, he confesses, he hated school as a youngster growing up in Owensboro, Ky. He didn't like studying and got poor grades. All he cared about, he says, was cars. He recalls telling his mother at age 7 that he intended to grow up and become a car dealer, prompting her to cry.
By age 18, he opened a used-car dealership, working on the side as a drag racer and a NASCAR racer. In 1979 he moved to Indianapolis to become a partner in an Oldsmobile store. He stayed for two years, then settled in the quiet community of Center Grove, his home ever since.
The greater Indianapolis market has been good to him, even during the industry upheaval of the past three years. Since 2009, Skillman has added five area dealerships. They were a combination of established dealers deciding to get out of the business after years of better times, dealers whose operations were failing and one store that became available through a factory retail reorganization.
Ray Skillman Auto Group now includes three Kia franchises, three Mitsubishis, two Mazdas, two Hyundais, two Buick-GMCs, and one each for Ford, Chevrolet and Suzuki. All operate in communities outside Indianapolis. He is preparing to build a new store for his Chevrolet franchise at an estimated cost of $4 million.
A year ago, Skillman tested the waters of sponsoring high school sports on a much smaller scale. He donated money to the Franklin Central Flashes, the high school sports program in the small, financially strapped community of Franklin Township, Ind., where his Chevrolet store operates. The stadium scoreboard now displays the Skillman Chevrolet logo.
"Liked the idea'
"I really liked the idea of doing that," Skillman said recently, taking a break from a day of drag racing at a track in Kentucky with his son and grandson. "I talked to all the managers and partners at our stores about it, and we decided we needed to do a lot more of it.
"Traditional advertising got us where we are today and we don't intend to pull back from that. But all over the country, school systems are struggling to get by. I think the auto business needs to do a better job of supporting local school systems.
"Schools represent the future of our communities, and the future of our business markets," he says.
"If we don't have better schools, what kind of business communities are we going to be operating in?
"If things keep going as we hope here, we intend to become a lot more involved with the schools in every community where we operate."

09-23-2011, 10:31 AM	#1
BlueOval Ralph Banned Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 852 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Ray Skillman a HERO! Dealer ads save school sports, art programs Strapped district planned hefty student fees, but Skillman reached out to "future customers' In addition to helping fund programs in the local school district, auto dealer Ray Skillman helps out the LIttle League, too. He gets an appreciative hug from one of the players. Indiana auto dealer Ray Skillman was incensed. He had just heard that his local school system was so strapped for funds that it was going to charge students a fee to play football this fall. Forget that, he decided. Instead, he tapped the advertising budget for his dealership group, which has 17 franchises spread over nine locations outside Indianapolis. "We told the school system, "We'll pay for it,'" Skillman says. ""All of it: the football programs, the other sports programs, the school bands, the art programs. Just add it up. We'll pay for it.'" Before local football practice started this summer, a deal emerged with the Center Grove Community School Corp. amounting to a $1 million-plus advertising contract. For five years, Ray Skillman Auto Group will pay $210,000 a year for sports, plus another $10,000 a year for the school system's fine arts programs, including school bands, drama clubs and choirs. With that arrangement, the school board in the unincorporated community 10 miles south of Indianapolis has dropped its plan to charge every high school athlete and cheerleader in the district $170 a season to participate. Middle school athletes were going to be levied $80, arts program participants were to be hit with their own fees, and some coaching salaries were in question until Skillman picked up the tab. "Real budget issues' "We've had some real budget issues," says Richard Arkanoff, superintendent of the eight-school, 7,800-student system. "The decision to charge those fees was a tough one. But Mr. Skillman called up my board president one day out of the blue. He told her he'd been thinking about how hard it would be for a working family to come up with $170, or for somebody who might be making minimum wage. He said he wanted to take care of all the fees." And Skillman's gift has been followed by others. Says Arkanoff: "He's really opened the door for us. Since he stepped in, a local hospital also came in to advertise and pay for some new stadium bleachers. And we're now talking to two more entities." In return for Skillman Auto Group's funding, Center Grove will allow Skillman to advertise his auto group around the sports program. The football scoreboard will contain a message from Ray Skillman Auto Group. The stadium's concession stand will bear words from Skillman, as will the basketball court scoreboard. Other specifics are being ironed out as the Center Grove Trojans kick off their fall games. "It seems like the whole world has fallen on hard times," says Skillman, 70 and the grandfather of 13. "Our teachers don't earn enough. Our policemen and firefighters don't earn enough. More businesses need to get involved with their community." "We spend millions on advertising," Skillman says of his auto group. "So we understand advertising, and we know who are our market is. "But this is also our community. I have five franchises in Center Grove, and also sell hundreds of used cars there," he says. His auto group, with 750 employees, expects to retail about 19,000 new and used vehicles this year. "When that stadium is full on a Friday night, those are my future customers. They are the parents of my future customers. They are my current customers. They're our current employees and the families of our employees. They are our future employees -- salespeople, technicians, phone operators and managers. We have to compete for good employees. We'd hire 100 people today if we could find the right F&I people, the right technicians and the right personnel," he says. "So will we get any return on our investment?" he asks. "Yes, we're going to get a huge return." He says that over the summer, his stores had customers come in to shop, buy vehicles or use the service departments in response to the news of Skillman's sponsorship plan. Hated school, loved cars Truth be told, he confesses, he hated school as a youngster growing up in Owensboro, Ky. He didn't like studying and got poor grades. All he cared about, he says, was cars. He recalls telling his mother at age 7 that he intended to grow up and become a car dealer, prompting her to cry. By age 18, he opened a used-car dealership, working on the side as a drag racer and a NASCAR racer. In 1979 he moved to Indianapolis to become a partner in an Oldsmobile store. He stayed for two years, then settled in the quiet community of Center Grove, his home ever since. The greater Indianapolis market has been good to him, even during the industry upheaval of the past three years. Since 2009, Skillman has added five area dealerships. They were a combination of established dealers deciding to get out of the business after years of better times, dealers whose operations were failing and one store that became available through a factory retail reorganization. Ray Skillman Auto Group now includes three Kia franchises, three Mitsubishis, two Mazdas, two Hyundais, two Buick-GMCs, and one each for Ford, Chevrolet and Suzuki. All operate in communities outside Indianapolis. He is preparing to build a new store for his Chevrolet franchise at an estimated cost of $4 million. A year ago, Skillman tested the waters of sponsoring high school sports on a much smaller scale. He donated money to the Franklin Central Flashes, the high school sports program in the small, financially strapped community of Franklin Township, Ind., where his Chevrolet store operates. The stadium scoreboard now displays the Skillman Chevrolet logo. "Liked the idea' "I really liked the idea of doing that," Skillman said recently, taking a break from a day of drag racing at a track in Kentucky with his son and grandson. "I talked to all the managers and partners at our stores about it, and we decided we needed to do a lot more of it. "Traditional advertising got us where we are today and we don't intend to pull back from that. But all over the country, school systems are struggling to get by. I think the auto business needs to do a better job of supporting local school systems. "Schools represent the future of our communities, and the future of our business markets," he says. "If we don't have better schools, what kind of business communities are we going to be operating in? "If things keep going as we hope here, we intend to become a lot more involved with the schools in every community where we operate."