Mercedes-Benz of Little Rock Sponsors Local School

A luxury car dealership and a school in an underprivileged area of the city might seem like two different worlds, but Mercedes-Benz of Little Rock is working to help children dream big and prepare them for scholastic success as the sponsor of Chicot Elementary & Early Childhood Center in Little Rock.

Mark Lee, general manager, said although the dealership’s parent company, Winrock Automotive Group in Little Rock, has many national sponsorships, this is the dealership’s first community sponsorship. When he joined the dealership in January, he added, one of his priorities was to make an impact on people in the local community.

“It’s important to us because it would be really easy for us to partner with schools that have the means to be able to support all of their students and just being able to know that we’re actually touching some lives of children and families that, had someone like us not stepped in, they would not have the opportunity to do the things that they’re doing at the school,” he said.

He added that the partnership began last month when dealership staff visited the early childhood center to read to children during National Reading Month.

“While we were there, we just saw such a need for more than just volunteering a few hours of reading,” he said. “It is a school that is in an area that’s underprivileged, and we were just overwhelmed with the opportunity of being able to support them.”

Janice Young, secretary/bookkeeper at the early childhood center, said that the dealership has met some of the school’s needs in just a few weeks. Mercedes-Benz of Little Rock ordered breakfast for the staff for Paraprofessional Appreciation Day on April 3, she said, and the dealership has ordered backpacks for students preparing to enter kindergarten.

The dealership has also offered to help the school’s playgrounds be resurfaced, Young said, adding that resurfacing would help prevent injuries to students, repair expenses from erosion, and mulch getting in children’s clothes and hair.

“I hope that this partnership will grow immensely, that we can work together to fulfill the needs of these underprivileged children and to make sure that our program stays in place and that we can give these children the best step up in life that we possibly can, and in the same regard, giving these resources to parents who are hardworking but may be fighting some environmental obstacles that are keeping them from being able to financially provide these items for their children,” she said.

The staff and parents at the program are deeply involved in helping the preschoolers start their educational journeys on the right foot, Lee said.

“Through some research, we found that the parents are extremely involved with their students’ activities at school, and that was just encouraging for us to see them,” he added. “These are parents that are having to work two and three jobs, but when they find out there’s an event going on at the school, they find time to get off work and be able to go be with their kids. That was important for us.”

Recently, he and other representatives from the dealership attended the Little Rock School District’s Volunteers in Public Schools volunteer appreciation dinner.

“Just seeing how much the community really has stepped up to volunteer in the Little Rock School District was awesome,” he said. “I think they had a total of 700,000 volunteer hours, which is absolutely incredible, so it was good to see the volunteers who were there and how much they really care for the Little Rock School District, and just being there really, really inspired us to be able to do more going into 2024 and 2025.”

Gilbert (left) poses with Donna Hall, early childhood coordinator at Chicot Elementary.

Mercedes-Benz of Little Rock has submitted its partnership paperwork and will be formally introduced to the Little Rock School Board at its May meeting, Young said, adding that she is grateful for the dealership’s eagerness to sponsor the school.

“We’re going into our fall school year, and they’re already looking forward, making plans on things that they want to roll out to help the school in coming years, so they’re taking on ownership of they see the need and what they can provide and how they can provide that.” she said. “It’s wonderful that they’re willing to do that, and we look so forward to a longstanding partnership with them.”