‘Fill the Boot’ fundraiser collects $8k for Jerry’s Kids

When they aren’t saving lives and putting out fires, the Summit Township Fire Department performs something just as thoughtful: collecting money to fight muscular dystrophy.

BJ Warner (left) and Aaron Cartwright (right), Summit firefighters both, used American 1’s Home Office coin machine to count up change collected during their annual “Fill the Boot” fundraiser. This past weekend, they stood at the corner of Brown St. and Michigan Ave. collecting coins in a firefighter’s boot. The proceeds will go to Jerry’s Kids and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Warner and Cartwright says between Summit and the Jackson Fire Department, they collected about $8,000 over three days.

“We couldn’t do this without the generous citizens in Jackson,” Warner says.

American 1 waived its usage fee on the coin machine for the effort.

Frugal tactics to save money this summer

Trent over at the Simple Dollar blog always has great personal finance tips to share. Check out his “Eight Little Frugal Tactics I’ve Learned This Summer” for some pointers on how to not spend a bunch of money, but still have a good time, during these warmer months.

Here’s one we can identify with:

Community festivals can be a very cheap way to spend a summer weekend, particularly ones near your home or ones that line up well with other planned summer trips. Just take along a sack lunch, watch a parade and the other activities (or even participate), and even sample some of the local fare by buying one and sharing it with the rest of your group. Even better, you can participate in events that push you a bit outside your comfort zone and let you try something a bit different than usual.

Great idea, Trent. In fact, we’ll give you a few ideas on some fun, free, family-focused activities this summer. His other tips include no-brainers like growing a garden, using scrap paper for kindling, and actually getting to know your neighbors. Imagine that.

American 1 Event Center signs up

Look at that. As of yesterday, our signs at the American 1 Event Center are up. If you’re driving down Ganson St. in Jackson, you’ll see the sign above. We also have them posted on the North and West sides of the building.

You can see the lighted sign above, too, which means we can announce events and happenings with flashy graphics and text.




This is at the North entrance to the Event Center, coming in the main doors.

We’re glad the signs were up in time for the Jackson County Fair, which takes place all next week. Look for our booth inside the Event Center all week long.

Check out the rest of the American 1 Event Center signs on our Flickr page.

Rebate extended through Saturday, with longer branch hours

A heads-up: we’re extending our Great American 1 Rebate offer through Saturday, and we’re extending all branch hours to 7 p.m. on Friday and until 4 p.m. on Saturday. That way you can pop in to any branch after work this weekend and get your loan closed.

Check out all our branch hours and locations to see what works best for you.

Movie and a Makeover this Wednesday

Our Ladies’ Night Out movie series just had a makeover.

Now the Movie and a Makeover series, we’ll still feature a fun night for you and your girlfriends with great movies, treats, Biggby Coffee refreshments, and now Salon Breathe & Spa is holding a drawing for a free makeover.

The movie “27 Dresses” will be featured this Wednesday, July 30, starting at 7 p.m. at the Michigan Theatre in downtown Jackson. Tickets are just $6, and all proceeds go to the Michigan Theatre restoration project.

Watch this year’s American 1 Teen Idol performances

Good news: we put together a video of all ten semi-finalists’ performances during Teen Idol 2008. I took a snippet of video from each and put them all together.

Also, check out the Jackson Citizen Patriot’s article on the event this weekend.

With Blair’s video, and now this one, we’ll put together one more that highlights all the action from that night, so stay tuned!

Call us ‘Flickr Pros’ from now on.

We just upgraded our Flickr account to the “pro” level, meaning we can upload as many photos as create as many sets as we want.

Yahoo! (no pun intended)

Flickr is a great photo sharing and management web site provided by Yahoo! It’s free to join, but the free account limits your photo uploads to 200 and your sets to three. The “pro” level costs about $25 a year.

Feel free to browse through our photo collections, steal some, and add us as a contact. American 1 makes a point to take tons of pictures during events. Call us historical, we just like to look back on all the fun we had.

Free Movie in the Park this Friday

Join us for a “date night” this Friday night for our second Movie in the Park event.

Bring a blanket or a chair and head to the Riverwalk Amphitheater in downtown Jackson after Cruise Night. We’ll start the movie at dusk.

The movie is “50 First Dates,” and the event is free to attend. Discount-priced popcorn and refreshments will be on hand for you and your date.

See you there – and hopefully the weather cooperates this time.

See you @ Summerfest

Are you heading to Chelsea’s Summerfest this Friday?

We are. Learn more about Chelsea’s Summerfest at their web site. Hope to see you there!

Blair wins Teen Idol 2008

Check out our 2008 Teen Idol winner, Blair Grotbeck from Adrian, in his encore performance.

Check back later for more videos and photos of the event!