Zerorez of Phoenix, a locally owned small business that specializes in carpet, tile and grout, upholstery, area rug, hard surface and mattress cleaning as well as pet odor treatment, helped make the holiday a little brighter for Sunshine Acres Children’s Homes in Mesa in recent weeks, as nearly the entire staff volunteered its time to clean the nonprofit’s homes, which provide shelter and care for more than 100 Valley children at any given time. In addition, the small business also rolled up its sleeves to assist AZTV’s Hometown Heroes Toy Drive, raising $1,000 toward the purchase of toys for children of Arizona’s fallen, wounded and deployed military families and our local first responders.

“As a business, but also as members of the community who live and raise families here ourselves, we believe in both proactively volunteering in our community as well as helping to ensure the success of its children and families,” said Casey Ashdown, owner of Zerorez of Phoenix. “We actually established the Zero 2 Hero community outreach program within the first few years of opening our doors in an effort to help raise critical funds for organizations serving children throughout the Valley. In addition, we are all active participants in the Rezoteer Volunteer Program, which provides the Zerorez staff and their family members a way to get involved with volunteer projects in their local communities and to share in the benefits of giving back alongside their co-workers.”

The partnerships with Sunshine Acres, now in its fifth year, as well as Hometown Heroes are just the most recent examples of how the recent BBB Business Ethics Award and Gilbert Chamber Spirit of Business Award winner, respectively, has given back in 2016. 

“For the past five years, we’ve raised funds for Phoenix Children’s Hospital each spring, donating more than $26,000 to directly impact research and care for the children at the hospital,” said Ashdown, also noting Zerorez aligned with the Arizona Humane Society in a first-ever partnership to sponsor their annual calendar program, helping to raise more than $30,000 for the organization at the local level.

In addition, Zerorez also partnered with KNIX FM’s Ben & Matt during Thanksgiving, donating $1,000 to their annual “Million Can Crusade,” and also supported organizations including Christmas Help for Families, Boy Scouts of America, the Anasazi Foundation, both the Gilbert Police and Fire Departments, respectively and several others.

At present, the business is working with the Heritage School, which has locations across the Southeast Valley, donating a percentage of sales from friends and families of the school back toward the needs of several of its campuses. Customers need only mention the school when booking any services to ensure a portion of their cleaning fee benefits the schools directly.

“And we’ve been just as busy volunteering as many hours as we do dollars,” said Ashdown. “In just the past year, we’ve volunteered our time making hats for children at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, planting cactus at Riparian Preserve, writing Christmas cards for children at Save the Family and even volunteering time at Feed My Starving Children.”

Altogether, the small business has donated nearly $13,000 and spent more than 150 hours volunteering together on causes they collectively care about and choose to support.

“And we can’t wait to do even more next year,” said Ashdown.