Local business, Kuras Dental, is giving back this holiday season by adopting a local Habitat family and purchasing their gifts for the holidays.
“We adopt families for Christmas each year, usually from the same contacts. With this year being as crazy as it has been, we decided we wanted to do a little more,” said Lenore Little, marketing director for Kuras Dental.
“We talked with our team and reached out on social media for anyone who may know someone or a family in need and a Habitat family was suggested,” she said.
Recent Habitat homeowners, the LaDukes, were the lucky family chosen. After working hard for over a year, Emily & Paul LaDuke, with their two kids Remington and Lexington, closed on their home in 2019.
The Kuras team purchases all of the gifts for the family themselves, though they would not turn down donations from individuals or businesses who wanted to contribute. The staff usually gets a wish list from the family and picks out gifts based on that.
“If we can’t help each other, what do we really have? For each person here at Kuras, the reason we support the community is different,” said Heather Runyon, co-owner of Kuras.
“Affording the basics can be hard enough so it’s very important to me to give back when I have,” she said. Runyon started giving to a local women’s shelter 20 years ago and has since incorporated the practice of giving at Kuras. She also said that the community supports them so much that it’s important for their business to return the favor. Kuras donates toothbrushes and supplies to various programs, schools, and organizations, offers a free day of dentistry each year, and tries to volunteer time as much as possible.
“I want to see our community happy and to continue to grow. The best way to do that is to support as much as we can locally,” Little said. “These values are a huge reason I was drawn to work at Kuras Dental as I feel they place the same value in giving back to the community and its members.”
Little is also a Habitat homeowner herself, making this a special moment for her to be able to help another Habi-family.
“It really feels great to be in a position to give back to a family that has put in that same hard work and is so deserving,” Little said.
Little has since also referred friends to the Habitat homeownership program who now have their own homes. Little said she is grateful for the knowledge she is able to pass on to others.
“Being settled in my own home now for the past 5 years, I have been able to save and budget to be able to give back to my community, as I feel Habitat has done for me,” she said.
The Habitat homeownership program emphasizes ‘paying it forward’ to its participants. Each homeowner is required to complete at least 100 hours of work on the build sites, helping to build other peoples’ homes. This concept has obviously stuck with Little since she completed the program.
“When our community thrives, we thrive,” Little said.
Kuras Dental is currently accepting new patients and is eager to serve community members. They plan to offer a free day of dentistry, as they have in the past, in 2021. In the meantime, new patients may call 734-242-7120 or visit www.monroesmilemakers.com for more information.
