By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
While the Dillons store on Hall Street in Hays had plenty to celebrate at Wednesday’s grand reopening, the excitement was shared with the community as the location gave away two $500 checks to local organizations and announced another large contribution to Thomas More Prep-Marian.
“We are very excited to be here in Hays, Kansas, to celebrate the grand reopening of our favorite little store here in Hays,” said Shelia Lowrie, associate communications and media relations manager. “It’s wonderful to see all of the changes that we have here today.
“This store is one that we are excited to share with our customers and our community. Hays has been very good to us, and it’s exciting to be able to give back in such meaningful ways.”
And give back they did, with presentations of two $500 checks to First Call for Help and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Ellis County.
“When it comes to celebrating, it is about the community and we’re very excited today to be able to welcome some of our friends of the store,” Lowrie said.
“We all feel that our youth is very important,” said Malinda Thomas, store manager, of the BBBS program. “We decided that was one of our top things that was very important for the community.”
First Call for Help was also recognized as an organization in need.
“We have people that somehow arrive here and they’re on their last tank of gas, or they say we’re here, but we don’t have any money,” Thomas said, indicating they often give out the organization’s phone number to people in need. “More than I would think we need too, but we do.”
“The reason we want to give to that is because we do send people their way, so we wanted to give the money back and know that people that need help, get help,” she said.
While those donations were welcome, a significantly larger donation was recognized at the celebration.
“Through the support of those who champion TMP and the way that they shop with us here at Dillons, we’re able to present this check today for $28,486,” Lowrie said.
The school received the donation through the participation in the Community Rewards Program that allows shoppers to choose an organization to receive funds out of a $2 million pool through the use of the Dillons Reward Card.
As for the store itself, the excitement over the remodel was palpable at the celebration.
“With the investment in Hays, we are really excited to share our newly renovated Dillons with you,” said Tony Salinas, district manager. “I hope you are as excited about this little store as we are.”
With all of the renovations he said he said the store feels like the newest store in town, a sentiment echoed by Thomas.
Video of the renovation in progress
“If you remember what the store looked like before, to what it looks like today, it’s just amazing the changes that have happened in the store,” Salinas said. “Our customers have been supportive to us throughout the remodel, being excited about the changes.”
Getting to this point over the last few months, however, took work from people across the organization and the support of the community.
“This beautiful new store is truly a testament to the level of teamwork and dedication exhibited from across the organization,” Salinas said. “It takes a lot of people to do a remodel. There’s a lot of things that need to happen within the store.”
So far, the community has welcomed the improvements.
“A few things the customers have said … they’re just like wow, the things we’ve added, the things we’ve done, it’s just a wow,” Thomas said.