Bill and Susan Murff named 2017 Ace Hardware All-Star Retailers
The Ace Hardware Foundation is pleased to announce that Bill and Susan Murff, owners of Cypress Ace Hardware in Houston have been named the 2017 Ace All-Star Retailers. This national award honors the owners of one Ace Hardware store annually for their extraordinary fundraising, leadership skills, innovation and commitment to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN Hospitals) – Ace’s national philanthropy of choice.
“We are delighted to present Bill and Susan Murff with this well-deserved recognition,” said Kane Calamari, President of the Ace Hardware Foundation. “Bill and Susan continuously demonstrate an incredible passion for fundraising and have helped generate awareness and advocacy for not only Texas Children’s Hospital, but for CMN Hospitals across the country.”
Under the leadership of Bill and Susan, Cypress Ace Hardware has raised more than $220,000 for Texas Children’s over the past 20 years. In 2016 alone, they raised more than $66,000 making them the highest fundraising store across all of Ace Hardware. Earlier this year, the Murffs presented Texas Children’s Hospital with a check for more than $100,000, which enabled the hospital to establish the Immune Mediated Inflammatory Central Nervous System and Brain Disorders Clinic.
In 2011, the Murffs launched an annual event at Cypress Ace Hardware called “Grill your Ace off.” At the event, 20 teams prepare specialty food dishes – generating friendly competition and impressive support from the community. This fundraising effort has become their signature event, one that the community looks forward to annually.
“We are honored beyond measure to be named the 2017 Ace All-Star Retailers,” said Bill Murff, owner of Cypress Ace Hardware in Houston. “Susan and I are humbled and proud that our team’s efforts have been so generously supported by the community, and that in turn, we have been able to give those funds directly to Texas Children’s Hospital. We have a very special connection to Texas Children’s, and have seen firsthand the life-saving work that takes place there on a daily basis,” Murff went on to say.
As part of Bill and Susan Murff’s recognition, Ace’s vendor partner Duracell will donate $25,000 in their name to Texas Children’s. The Murffs were nominated by representatives from Texas Children’s Hospital, and were recognized in front of thousands of their peers at Ace’s annual convention held in Chicago on Aug. 17.
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For more than 90 years, Ace Hardware has been known as the place with the helpful hardware folks in thousands of neighborhoods across America, providing customers with a more personal kind of helpful. In 2017, Ace ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction with Home Improvement Retail Stores, Eleven Years in a Row," according to J.D. Power. With more than 5,000 hardware stores locally owned and operated across the globe, Ace is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace and its subsidiaries operate an expansive network of distribution centers in the U.S. and also have distribution capabilities in Ningbo, China; Colon, Panama; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Its retailers' stores are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and approximately 55 countries. For more information on Ace, visit acehardware.com or the company newsroom at newsroom.acehardware.com.
About the Ace Hardware Foundation
As the official charitable division of Ace Hardware Corporation, the Ace Hardware Foundation helps enhance the vision of being the “Helpful Place” in local communities across the country and around the globe through charitable giving. The Ace Foundation provides support and philanthropic opportunities to its consumers, retail store owners, vendors and team members to give back to local communities through fundraising efforts for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and American Red Cross Disaster Relief.
About Children's Miracle Network Hospitals
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® raises funds and awareness for 170 member hospitals that provide 32 million treatments each year to kids across the U.S. and Canada. Donations stay local to fund critical treatments and healthcare services, pediatric medical equipment and charitable care. Since 1983, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $5 billion, most of it $1 at a time through the charity's Miracle Balloon icon. Its various fundraising partners and programs support the nonprofit's mission to save and improve the lives of as many children as possible. Find out why children's hospitals need community support, identify your member hospital and learn how you can Put Your Money Where the Miracles Are, at CMNHospitals.org and facebook.com/CMNHospitals.
