Ever since its inception, Mendel Plumbing and Heating has made valiant efforts to become a vital part of the St. Charles community. According to employee Thomas Mascari, working with – and for – the community is just part of Mendel Plumbing and Heating’s mission.

“We’ve been a part of the community for years, and it’s important for us to participate in the community. We sponsor a lot of sports teams, school teams, things of that nature. It’s always been a part of our culture to support the community,” Mascari said.

Beyond just sponsorships, Mendel Plumbing and Heating also has worked in conjunction with various philanthropic efforts throughout the community. Whether it be sponsoring an event or donating money, Mike Mendel, owner of Mendel Plumbing and Heating, makes sure to always be giving back to the community that supports his business.

“We participate in a lot of fundraisers, like we just helped with one for a Lyme disease awareness effort. We’ll contribute to a lot of those kinds of things,” Mascari said. “A few years ago, LivingWell, a cancer resource center, was selling raffle tickets and Mike bought some. One of the prizes was $25,000 and Mike wrote on his raffle tickets ‘If won, donate back.’ Of course, he ended up winning, and the $25,000 was donated back to LivingWell.”

Now, Mendel Plumbing and Heating is working on its own fundraiser for the community. For the month of October, a pink truck will be driving around the streets of St. Charles, promoting cancer awareness. On the truck is the phrase "Help Us Donate $10,000 With 10,000 Likes."

The fundraiser is quite simple – once Mendel Plumbing and Heating gets an additional 10,000 “likes” on its Facebook page, it will donate $10,000 back to LivingWell Cancer Resource Center in Geneva.

LivingWell works to foster a comfortable community for anyone facing cancer, or their loved ones, giving them the resources they need.

“Cancer affects so many of our lives, so we thought we would try to do something this year to contribute to that,” Mascari said. “We started it for the month of October, October being breast cancer awareness month. We’re converting likes to a dollar donation.”

So far, within the first week of the campaign, Mendel Plumbing and Heating has garnered an additional 2,500 likes. Mascari said the campaign will run until the end of the month, and he hopes that the full 10,000 can be achieved by then.

“The feedback has been very positive so far. Lots of people have been very complimentary about the idea and the involvement and trying to raise awareness for the disease and its affect on people,” Mascari said.

According to Mascari, this is the first time Mendel Plumbing and Heating has done a fundraiser of this magnitude. But with the help of the community, Mascari hopes it will not be the last.

“This is the first time we’ve ever done something like this. We participate a lot in community events, and we’ll contribute a lot to those kinds of things, but for the first time we decided, ‘Lets engage the community and see if we can get the community to help us,’” Mascari said.