Employees Find Gift for Boss Who Has Everything
This year, car dealer David Wilson will have one less package under his Christmas tree. But that’s just fine with him.
Instead of buying the boss another expensive gift this year, Wilson’s 130 employees at Toyota of Orange decided the best way to wish him a Merry Christmas would be to donate to his favorite charity, the Orangewood Children’s Foundation.
But the scope of their generosity overwhelmed Wilson, the dealership’s president and owner. At the company Christmas party on Sunday, he was presented with a check for $10,000 payable to the Orangewood Foundation, which supports the county’s home for abused and abandoned children.
The money will go to an endowment for post-high school education for Orangewood children.
“I don’t need any more presents under my tree,” Wilson said Wednesday. “This is the best present any employee can give (his) employer. It shows the kind of people we have working at the Toyota of Orange.”
Orangewood Executive Director William Steiner said he is “delighted to receive that contribution because it is going to help a lot of youngsters after they leave Orangewood to get on with their lives in terms of a college education and vocational training.”
Interest from the endowment will be used for scholarships for 18-year-olds who have no parental support and “need extra assistance to reach their goals in life,” Steiner said.
“It’s quite a tribute to Dave Wilson that his employees are honoring him in this way,” Steiner said. “It’s a very personal kind of recognition . . . and one that will be long-lasting in its impact.”
Toyota of Orange assistant service manager Bob Eddy said the dealership’s employees “wanted to do something for the boss for a change.”
“He gives us a good place to work,” Eddy said. “I feel good about it. I put considerably more in than I did last time, but I feel good about it.”
Last year Toyota of Orange employees established the first-ever endowment for the Orangewood Foundation.
$60,000 Raised
Wilson, who is married and has two daughters, ages 15 and 20, is on the foundation’s board of directors. Over the past three years his car dealership, Toyota of Orange, has raised $60,000 for the foundation by sponsoring 5- and 10-K runs.
“These are truly innocent victims,” Wilson said of the children placed at Orangewood. “I think this would be a particularly depressing time of the year for them.”
Last Christmas the auto dealership employees chipped in to buy Wilson a $1,400 lead crystal model of a Ferrari Testarossa, like the real one he drives.
This year employees “kept asking me what Dave would like for Christmas,” said Vikki Knoche, assistant to the president. “He has everything he needs, and it’s always difficult. His birthday is in November,” she said. “I thought, why don’t we just combine his birthday and Christmas and everybody give money to the endowment fund, because he doesn’t need gifts.
“I think everybody gave something. We didn’t use any pressure,” she said. “David’s always been very generous to his employees.”
“We said, ‘For those of you who have been asking, this is something you can do. It’s tax deductible.
“I was shooting for $5,000, and we ended up with $10,000.”
For Wilson, it was the perfect gift.
No Place in the System
“Those kids are not juvenile delinquents,” Wilson said of the Orangewood children. “They are innocent victims. When mom and dad are having a fight, the police take” the children to Orangewood.
“They are children there’s no slot for in the social service system, (including) infants born addicted to illegal substances.”
Since last weekend’s Christmas party, Wilson has learned that the dealership’s managers and salesmen also decided this year not to exchange gifts.
“They decided this was such a good idea they just put the money in the pot on top of the $10,000,” Wilson said. “And today some of their wives are out buying toys that will be delivered to Orangewood.”
Wilson suggested that donations to Orangewood may be the perfect choice for those who want to “do something that will last forever for your boss or your husband or your father.”
