The Lincoln IGA a business model for community involvement

[October 06, 2009]  In the course of this past year, we have had the privilege of interviewing many outstanding Personalities of the Week. They have been individuals, couples, civic organizations and groups of diverse people, all working for a common goal: to give unselfishly of themselves to others to help make our community a better place to live.

We don't want to forget that there are special businesses in this community that also are an integral part of who we are and what we have accomplished, and we don't want to leave them out of these profiles.

With that being said, we want to make our first business profile a grocery store that has helped almost every worthwhile cause in this community over the past two decades. This week we focus on the Lincoln IGA.

In a way, the Lincoln IGA has reinvented the wheel. In a day and age when businesses often are owned by faraway corporations and not involved with the community, the Lincoln IGA has become our good neighbor and friend and engaged us and our efforts as well as any business you could find anywhere. Like in days of old when a neighborhood grocery developed a bond with their patrons, the Lincoln IGA has brought back that business model of community involvement and help.

When Bill Campbell and Charlie Lee came to Lincoln in 1990 they were strangers, not only to Lincoln but to each other.

However, over the years their names and the business they run have come to be synonymous with caring and charitable giving. Today, the Lincoln IGA has helped so many of our important and near-to-our-heart causes that the name is known in almost every household in the town, if not the entire county.

Lee said that taking over the IGA was strictly a business venture that the two ended up in together. Lee was from Fairfield and Campbell hailed from Monticello.

Over the years, their relationship with each other has grown into something brotherly, as they are now good friends, but still business partners who sometimes struggle to agree on decisions.

There are some decisions that the two men have no trouble agreeing on, among those being that if you give to your community, your community will give back to you.

Lee recalls that the first time they decided to get involved was when the clock on the courthouse quit working, and the county didn't have the funds to get it fixed. Campbell and Lee footed the bill for the repair because they felt that keeping the clock and the courthouse in general in good repair was important to the community.

Since then, they have found countless other opportunities to help out.

With weekend cookouts in their parking lot, they have been able to help just about every youth organization in the county. "Every time you help a kid's organization, you touch them and their entire family," Lee said.

In addition, they do a lot for the local food pantries and other not-for-profits, such as the churches and the Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Most recently the Lincoln IGA donated a prize of $500 worth of groceries to the Logan County United Way, helping that organization have one of their most successful fundraisers ever.

Each year, the IGA supplies many of the items distributed by the Salvation Army at Thanksgiving and by the Community Action Partnership at Christmas for their food baskets, at greatly reduced prices.

They also do a fundraiser for the Lincoln-Logan County Food Pantry each year in November.

But these numerous charitable donations hardly scratch the surface of all that this store has done for our community over the years.

Those interviewed also found difficulty in where to start their praise. All were of the same mindset that there was no need to end their admiration.

Personalities of the Week themselves wanted to talk about the IGA. Norm Newhouse, visiting with Cliff Seitzer as Seitzer worked on a Lincoln College project, didn't know how to sum up the admiration he has for the local business. "There's not enough you can say about them," Newhouse said. "They are the most unselfish people you could ever meet. Seitzer said, "They mean more to this community than anyone I know."

There was more praise from another pair of Personalities of the Week.

Dom Dalpoas, director of The Oasis senior center, said, "We are so fortunate to have so many wonderful, supportive businesses in this community, and you have to include the IGA right there in the top. They are so community-minded. What they do for the community is truly phenomenal. They teach us what a community is all about."

Wally Reifsteck, an Oasis board member, smiled and agreed with Dalpoas. "You can't find a better example of community-mindedness," he said. "The IGA is there for everyone."

And it is this philosophy of being there for everyone that has everyone in the community returning the favors with their patronage.

Lee recalls that when the store suffered damage from fire in 2000, that was a tough time for the store. "We were closed for six months, but when we reopened, the business came right back," he said.

That should have been no surprise to the tandem. The names of all the groups and organizations that the grocery store has helped in some way, shape or form would be like a directory of the community's worthy causes, with few, if any, not on the list. Many who shop at the IGA are there not only because of the store's reputation for quality meats and foods, but also to try to repay the store for all the help they have given to their personal causes. Again, a throwback to old days when a community and a business worked hand in hand to help each other whenever and wherever they could.

The stores relationship with the community is expressed well by Lincoln Mayor Keith Snyder. "Lincoln is incredibly blessed to have a hometown grocery store like IGA. There aren’t many people who do more for this community than Charlie and Bill and their employees. The people of Lincoln love IGA because it’s clear that IGA loves Lincoln."

Lee said that the community has been good to them, and they appreciate it, and giving back is very important. He commented: "We give until it hurts. If you have a million dollars and give someone a hundred, that really doesn't hurt, but if you only have a thousand dollars and you give a hundred, you feel that."

The men also have grown to love this community. They are happy to be here and intend to stay right here for many years to come. Lee said, "We've watched little kids come in here as shoppers' kids, then seen them come back and go to work for us, and now we even have one who is the kid of a kid working here."

Besides being an essential employer of youngsters and adults, the IGA has become an invaluable resource to this community. The way they operate their business and the way they have become one with this community is a model of community excellence that all could emulate. It is because of their spirit and community involvement that we are proud to offer the Lincoln IGA as this week's Personality of the Week.

[By MIKE FAK]