Security Jewelers helps make runner’s dream come true.
Melody Saleh a two-time breast cancer survivor had set a recovery goal of running The Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon. She entered the lottery to get a spot in the race but unfortunately did not get selected.
Her sister-in-law Heidi Saleh made her aware that Security Jewelers in Duluth was auctioning an entry on ebay with 100% of the proceeds to be donated to the Junior League of Duluth (which Heidi is a member of) to help rebuild the popular Play Front Park.
Melody bid and bid again and again until all the other bidders dropped out.
Melody is pictured with Jay Seiler, owner of Security Jewelers in front of a replica of the check presented to the Junior League.
Every year Security Jewelers auctions off one of the entries it receives as a Marathon Sponsor and donates all the proceeds to a local nonprofit.
I really appreciate, that Saleh got to do her thing and SJ made it happen. But to me this post kind of crosses a line. A business, posting as a business, not only initially promoted the auction, but now is self-writing, for free, a small PR piece.
I may be off base here, and won’t belabor the point, but I think this falls under the “Promotional Content” area of the policies, and think it skates too close to the margin.
I also thought that Grandma’s Marathon (Inc.) prohibited the re-selling of race entries.
I hate when a business toots its own horn like this.
Grandma’s does prohibit reselling of race entries. An exception is made in this case because it’s a charity thing.
Thanks for pointing out. I really never did study the
policies (will check out) but I do see commercial plugs
sprinkled throughout PDD.
Most of these are plugs for saloons and coffee shops hosting
bands (Starfires blowout sale seems pretty commercial to me
also). Granted a bit more indie then my jewelry store but all
a call for action (spend your money, drink our suds, coffee, buy
my threads, etc).
I will continue to use other media for crass commercialism
but every now and then will experiment with the many new
forms of alternative media to try to keep our name in front
of the public.
Being a sponsor we can do what we please with entries. I
always get Scott’s permission before auctioning and always
direct all $$$ to a local non profit.
I don’t know how charities work, but it sounds like in this case…
A local business auctions on ebay, gets public recognition in whatever shape or form for the donation, and then gets “bigga” tax break. Is that pretty much how it works?
Just a guess.
I see many of the commercial plugs, too, jay. Question to general viewers: wasn’t there some talk of a new post category a while back as a promotion/ad/commercial/whatever?
Jay is a nice guy.
The Seiler brothers are uncommonly generous businessmen.
And they are very nice to their delivery drivers.
Yes we get public recognition,and local non profits get money they would not have otherwise received.
No,there are no tax breaks.
We are simply handing over money from one person to another.
Also we never deduct from amount given or ask for reimbursement to cover our expenses in doing this.
Ebay and paypal fees alone take around 5%.
In a nut shell we are trying,in a unique,creative way to get funds for local non profits that they otherwise would not have received.
For this we try to get a little publicity and the goodwill associated with it.
kudos.
The line always feels crossed when promotional posts are made by people who don’t otherwise contribute to the PDD community. If you’re here frequently and genuinely commenting on discussions about other things happening in the city, people will give you more slack when it comes to talking about your own stuff.
Blatant PR crap like this makes me less likely to read PDD. I’m just sayin’.
Jay is a very nice guy, slow golfer, but still a very nice guy!
I also think when a business posts they need to use their business name if the post has to do with the business/commercial enterprise. I expect that. I figured out secjewl as being Security Jewelers now, but I never would have made that connection before.
I’m all for self policing of posts by readers. But we, as in the PDD community, are starting to come across as a little hyper critical and I’m obviously not the only one who’s noticed that.
Not that my opinion matters, but my interpretation is that this post works, considering the content and the source. Not gonna name names, but other businesses post events and other happenings on here all the time.