Mikell Bollinger - Raise the Roof With SRS’s Charity Concert - PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of a live interview with Mikell Bollinger of SRS Distribution. You can read the interview below or listen to the podcast.

Intro: Hello and welcome to another episode of Roofing Road Trips. My name's Karen Edwards and I am so excited about our guest today. We've got Michael Bollinger from SRS Raise the Roof Foundation here today. Michael, welcome.

Mikell Bollinger: Thank you so much, Karen and thanks to Rufers Coffee Shop for having me today. I'm honored to be part of this broadcast.

Karen Edwards: All right, well, so first of all, for those who may not know, could you just introduce yourself and tell us what you do at the Raise the Roof Foundation?

Mikell Bollinger: Sure, as you said, Michael Bollinger, I am the Vice President for Community Engagement for SRS Distribution and the Executive Director for our SRS Raise the Roof Foundation. I've had the honor and privilege of being part of this organization and serving in this capacity for six and a half years now, and it's been a great ride.

Karen Edwards: Wow, wow, wow. So we're gonna talk today specifically about the charity concert at the IRE. But before we dive into that, I'd like you just to tell me a little bit more about the Raise the Roof Foundation, its mission and who it's aiming to help.

Mikell Bollinger: Okay, sure. So our leadership from the time that SRS started as a business has been very charitable and community minded from the very beginning. So since I'm starting over, Karen, I'm already stumbling. I'm like, my mind is going ahead of my thought. I mean, my speech. Okay, let's start that over. Ask the question again, please.

Karen Edwards: Okay. That's okay. That's all right.

Karen Edwards: Okay, so we are going to be talking on today's episode about the Raise the Roof Foundation's charity concert coming up at the International Roofing Expo, which I'm super excited about. But before we dive into that topic, I'd like you to talk a little bit about the foundation itself and its mission and why it was established and who it's aiming to help.

Mikell Bollinger: Sure, I'm happy to talk about that. So SRS from its inception as a business has always been very community minded and charitable and the leadership that we had starting the business certainly spoke to that and lived out those values. So SRS was founded in 2008 and then four years later.

Four of our key leaders decided to formalize how we deal with charity and giving back to the community by establishing the foundation. So that included our current CEO, Dan Tinker, our founder and former CEO, Ron Ross and now retired chief financial officer, Gary Swan and chief legal officer, John Davis. So the four of them got together, drafted up all the necessary charter work to establish the foundation and created it.

And in doing that, established what our primary focus areas are. So we have three primary mission pillars. First and foremost is service to veterans, military families and first responders. And then our second pillar is to provide assistance for disaster relief efforts. And then third pillar is to focus on community assistance in our...

Markets where we serve and where we live, that really over the years has tended to gravitate towards service to children and families in crisis. So the folks that we help, of course, with veterans and first responders and military families, we look to provide them with services through the network of nonprofit partners that we work with to provide things like free transportation to medical services and rehabilitation that may be away from where they live. So that could be free flights. We work with an organization that provides free flight vouchers for them. So example, if a veteran lives in Ohio, say and they need to get cancer treatment at someplace like MD Anderson or Sloan Kettering that's far away and their VA resources don't provide that anymore for them, well,

Mikell Bollinger: We can help by supporting this organization that gives us free flight vouchers to them. Also focusing on employment transition programs once they leave the military. We work with organizations that help provide training and other transitional services for veterans and organizations that provide suicide awareness and try to prevent the high rate of suicide among veterans and military personnel and also mental health services which of course are in the forefront of everybody's mind today. Those are some of the areas that we focus on with our veterans and military families and first responders and of course given yesterday's tragedy, the tragic news of the crashes, the mental health services and support for those first responders is just paramount so we really want to try to make an impact there.

Disaster relief is also a key effort. You it's an area, a double-edged sword. It's a terrible circumstance for those that are involved in those disasters, the individuals and families and communities impacted. And ultimately though, the roofing industry does benefit from the roofs and the rebuilds that happen in those communities. And so we want to support giving back to those areas impacted. So.

Of course, just recently with Hurricane Helene and now the California wildfires are just a couple of examples. We work with organizations that help provide assistance to the victims of those hurricanes and as well as tornadoes, floods, wildfires, other natural disasters to help give back to those communities to rebuild and restore. And we just recently gave a several hundred thousand dollars to relief efforts for Hurricane Helene victims and we're in the process of fundraising for the California wildfire relief as we speak. And then families and children, that looks somewhat similar and then also can be different in all the communities that we're in and that we serve. Food insecurity and hunger is common among all communities.

Mikell Bollinger: That's an area of impact for those families and children. And then we also work with organizations that help transition, excuse me, families and children that are trying to get out of a homelessness situation. So we work with those programs to provide transition services so that they can ultimately have permanent housing situations and stability.

From that circumstance of their lives. We also work very closely with organizations that provide counseling and therapy services for children and women who have been victims of abuse or neglect, domestic violence situations and those unfortunate circumstances. And we work with a number of organizations that really focus on how to help those families and those children heal, as well as going through the forensic process with law enforcement officials.

Being put in foster care, all of those very challenging circumstances for women and families and children that we want to try to make a bright spot in their life by providing some support to those organizations that provide key services to them in those very challenging times. So those are the folks that we try to serve, the areas that we try to make the most impact on with the dollars that we raise through the foundation.

Karen Edwards: Wow, that is an impressive list of areas where you guys are helping out. And I know that part of the core values of SRS distribution is give back. And you guys sure are doing so. It's very, very impressive. So one of the ways that you raise money is through the Raise the Roof Foundation charity concert that takes place every year now at the International Roofing Expo.

I'm just curious, you know, to get a behind the scenes. How did that idea come about of, hey, let's have a concert and turn it into a fundraiser?

Mikell Bollinger: That's a great question. And actually, the concert started well before my tenure with SRS. It started back in 2014. And it really grew out of the, as you said, the core value of SRS to provide great relationships, build great relationships with customers, with vendor partners and other key stakeholders in the roofing industry. And so,

At some point in our history, someone did have the brilliant idea of saying, hey, we're doing these things to appreciate our customers, to show our support for our vendor partners. And we love live music. And so why don't we roll all that into some wonderful event where we give back our appreciation and our gratitude for what they do in our industry and how they support us as a business, but also you know, see if we can raise a little money to support some great causes since we founded the foundation at that point. So hosting the concert was just an ideal way to bring all those key areas and components together and really create some visibility for them while it was really a fledgling foundation, focusing on those mission pillars and the causes and really expressing our heartfelt gratitude while having a wonderful party and really enjoying some great concerts and having fun around that universal language of music that speaks to everybody.

Karen Edwards: It sure does. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about this year's concert. Can you tell us who's performing and when and when and where?

Mikell Bollinger: Sure, so we have had some incredible artists over the past several years and we're really excited this year to welcome what we would call some folks with some Texas red dirt roots. So we have a couple of bands that are from actually my hometown area of West Texas so I'm excited to hear them. That will be Treaty Oak Revival and then Flatland Cavalry will be performing and then in both of those bands really are kind of country genre in nature. And then we will have our headliner who is Whiskey Myers, also with some Texas Red Dirt Roots and their kind of country and rock and roll. They are so fun to watch. Their percussionist is just, he's like one of my favorite performers I think I've ever seen. So they're gonna put on a great show. We can't wait to.

Have everybody come out and really enjoy some Texas style music. Now that we're in San Antonio this year, we wanna bring it home to Texas. So we're excited about that and having these three bands join us and it's gonna be just a great time for everybody.

Karen Edwards: What's the venue where the concert will be?

Mikell Bollinger: The venue will be at the ESPY, which is a new venue for us. We have not done an event there at that, but it's a great area to have the concert. we're looking forward to, I'm just messing this really up, Karen.

Karen Edwards: It's okay, we'll start that question over. Okay.

Mikell Bollinger: Gosh, okay.

Karen Edwards: So where is the concert going to be? What's the venue like?

Mikell Bollinger: So the concert is going to be at the ESPY in San Antonio. That is a new venue for us and it's got an outdoor feature to it. you know, San Antonio is known for its Riverwalk, but also it's nice mild weather. So we're looking for a nice indoor outdoor kind of venue with these great bands and it should be a really fabulous experience for everybody.

Karen Edwards: What other activities will be taking place during the event? I know sometimes I feel like that things may have been auctioned off. I think I remember Tim, our Tim, Heidi's husband, purchasing a set list from one of the concerts after the fact as an additional fundraiser. So are there any exciting additional activities that people can look forward to?

Mikell Bollinger: Yeah, absolutely. So we always include a very lively live auction as part of the concert. It'll be led by our own CEO, Dan Tinker, as well as our Building Products President, Kent Gardner. They make a dynamic duo on stage during the...auction. We'll have some wonderful, some really fabulous items as well as some very unique experience packages to auction off and you know there may be a set list thrown in. Sometimes the bands throw in something extra. We'll have some unique and commemorative concert posters that will be signed by the band members. I know those will be among the auction items so it's always a good time for that.

We'll also have the XTV as we always do at IRE. So that's going to be there that people can visit before the concert and through IRE. And it's just going to be a great time for everybody to come out and enjoy the bands, the music, the food, the fellowship. We're looking forward to it. And we'll also, by the way, Kieran and we also, as you may know, we also feature charity partners as part of the

Karen Edwards: How?

Mikell Bollinger: Concert as well. So prior to the auction, we'll have a couple of our charity partners come out this year. Both of those are veteran focused. The first one is going to be Operation Triage. They're a nonprofit that's headquartered there in the central Texas area, smaller nonprofit that really serves disabled veterans with repairs and rebuilds and renovations to their homes. We've been engaged with them for about three years now.

And have done a number of projects with them for roof replacements and repairs. So they're a great organization. They're founded by a retired Air Force veteran, Daniel Vargas, who will be there to provide some information about their organization. But they're a great partner for us. And then also this year, we'll feature a new partner who is Soldiers Angels. They're a nationwide organization headquartered there in San Antonio, but serving the entire country.

They provide services, programs and support to veterans as well as military families, including those with deployed personnel. So they provide care packages, counseling services, supportive services to veterans that are in VA facilities and a wide variety. they were actually founded by the granddaughter of General George Patton, their president Amy Palmer.

And one of their area directors, Tom Straley, will be joining us as well. So it'll be great to hear from those folks and learn more and share more about their mission with the crowd.

Karen Edwards: Excellent. And a ticket also includes food and drink, right?

Mikell Bollinger: Absolutely. Come thirsty, come hungry. Your food, your beverages, your bar, all included.

Karen Edwards: You.

Karen Edwards: and what does a ticket cost?

Mikell Bollinger: General admission tickets are $100. We have a VIP level that's $500 that does include meet and greets, limited meet and greets with the band, as well as a specific VIP area within the venue.

Karen Edwards: Wow, that's a bargain. I'm telling you, if you've been to a concert recently and purchased tickets, you know that it's not cheap. And those prices are so reasonable for everything that's included. Congrats on being affordable.

Mikell Bollinger: Well, we think so and yes, we think so and you know, the great thing is that every dollar that we raise at this concert, it really does go straight to support the charity. So none of it goes to overhead for the concert or the support personnel or anything. So all money raised through ticket sales through the auction go directly to benefit our charity partners and those missionaries that we spoke of earlier.

Karen Edwards: Think that's so important because a lot of times when you are donating money, part of that dollar is getting not directly to the people who need the help. So knowing that all of the money is going directly to those partner organizations, that's fantastic. I love that you can do that. And that just shows another way that SRS distribution is giving back.

Mikell Bollinger: Yes, thank you just for your kind words to say that it really is reflective of the commitment that our company and our foundation has to giving back and making sure that we do the very best we can to make those dollars work hard to care for the neighbors in need in our communities.

Karen Edwards: Now I want to make sure, the the IRE traditionally has always been a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, but this year it is actually a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and that's February 19th through the 21st in San Antonio, of course. Which night is the concert?

Mikell Bollinger: So the concert will be Thursday night, February 20th. We typically do it in the middle of IRE, the middle day of IRE. So we're sticking with that same format. So yes, Thursday, February 20th. You don't wanna miss it. Be at the SB, 6 p.m. Doors open.

Karen Edwards: All right, now I know some years you've thrown in some surprise guests. Do you have any surprises for us this year or are we just going to have to wait and see?

Mikell Bollinger: You're just gonna have to wait and see if we have any surprise guests. you know, I'm under, mum's the word. If we have somebody show up, we, we want it to be a genuine surprise. So, can't reveal more than that at this point.

Karen Edwards: You

Karen Edwards: Right there is reason alone to get your ticket and make sure that you're there because there probably will be a surprise guest. It's been pretty cool and fun in the past. I know we have some of our team members are already, they've got their tickets. They're ready to go and have a great time at the ESPY on Thursday night. Well, Michael, thank you so much for being here today and sharing all this fun information about the Raise the Roof Foundation and the charity concert. It's been a pleasure.

Mikell Bollinger: Thank you, Karen. Thank you for having us and thanks for everything that Roofers Coffee Shop does for the roofing industry. We look forward to the concert. We're happy to have you and the team from RCS come out and we invite everybody else to join us. Thursday, February 20th tickets are still on sale through the Eventbrite link.

You can find it on our social media platforms as well as our IRA channel. So we look forward to having a great crowd and having a fabulous event with some wonderful music and celebrating the roofing industry and giving back to great causes.

Outro: Yeah, and we've got that information on Rufus Coffee Shop as well, all over the place. So there shouldn't be any excuse for you not being able to get your tickets. Thank you everybody out there for listening to this wonderful conversation. And we hope to see you Thursday night at IRE at that concert. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast because we hope to see you on a future episode. Thanks for tuning in today. We'll see you next time. Bye.