Smyrna Kroger Top MDA Fundraiser in Region

Smyrna Kroger customers helped the new South Cobb Drive store raise $8,340 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association last month making it the top fundraiser for the Atlanta division.

In March Kroger stores in Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina and Alabama raised more than $375,000 for MDA, a nonprofit dedicated to curing muscular dystrophy. The Smyrna Kroger raised the most money of any store in the Southeast. Daniel Thurman, the store’s manager, considers this quite an accomplishment .

Thurman and his colleagues at Kroger collected donations at cookouts in front of the store and by selling Shamrocks for $1 or $5 at the registers. Thurman said the key to the store’s fundraising success was the commitment of the Smyrna community.

“The community was so giving during the cookouts,” he said. “Oftentimes instead of a customer giving a dollar, they would give $10. The community was so giving during the cookouts. When they found out what we were raising money for they’d stop and give us money and not even buy a hotdog.”

Thurman said he and a core group of employees at the South Cobb Drive store were committed to being number one in the region because of some very special motivation.

“One of the main things you get with that is you get to camp,” he said. “You get to go to MDA camp and spend time with the kids. And when you do that it has such an impact it makes you better for the next time. We usually have an ice cream social. And you get there and you get to help with the kids and spend time with those kids and see how they are and how they’re interacting with their families and other kids who have the disease. It’s very powerful.”

Thurman and other Kroger employees will visit MDA campers at Camp Twin Lakesthis July.