The 2023 Subaru Love Promise Community Commitment Award
We've been nationally recognized for our dedication to our community and the Subaru Love Promise.
We're honored to receive the 2023 Subaru Love Promise Community Commitment Award. This award nationally recognizes Subaru retailers who are making the world a better place while demonstrating an outstanding commitment to supporting passions and causes in local communities. These efforts are focused in important areas such as the environment, community, health, education, and pets.
What is the Subaru Love Promise?
Subaru and our retailers believe in making the world a better place and the Subaru Love Promise is our vision of respecting all people. This is our commitment to show love and respect to our customers and to work to make a positive impact in the world.
How is Charlie's Subaru dedicated locally to the Love Promise?
Our Love Promise can be seen in various partnerships with local charities and non-profits. We're grateful for the opportunity, not only to be a part of our community, but to serve it as well. We don't give to get, we give to inspire others to give.
Kennebec Valley Humane Society, , Humane Society Waterville Area
Maine Audubon Society
Cony High School, Winthrop High School, Messalonskee High School, University of Maine, Gardiner High School
United Way, Augusta Rotary , Big Brothers Big Sisters, YMCA, Maine State Golf Association, Augusta Food Bank
Maine General Medical Ctr, American Lung Association, Maine Breast Cancer Coalition, American Heart Association, National MS Society
Love Promise Stories from Charlie's Subaru
Subaru and Charlie's Subaru believe in making a positive impact on the communities in which we live and work. We uphold that belief through our Love Promise Community Commitment. Every month, we select inspiring stories from customers and partners from around our area who strive to support our collective commitment and feature them here
Delievery to the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter - stephen s
Charlie's Subaru of Augusta Maine recently took a trip to Waterville Maine's Mid Maine Homeless Shelter. Charlie's was able to donate boxes and boxes of socks to the shelter as part of the Subaru Loves to Help® campaign. The Waterville shelter provides more than just a bed and a meal for our guests. Guests are paired up with one of our in-house case managers to create an action plan to obtain stable housing and prevent homelessness in the future. The action plan establishes goals in twelve areas of the guests’ lives. These twelve areas are: Housing, Financial Stability, Education, Family & Children, Transportation, Safety Planning, Social, Employment, Legal, Mental Health, DV Support, and Substance Abuse. Charlie's Subaru is so very happy to be able to help this organization that helps so many!
Scribble finds a home - Melanie R
Scribble came in as a stray in February, just days old. He was all by himself, so bottle feeding began. Scribble really loved to fall asleep during feedings, but it was very quickly after intake that we noticed something wasn't quite right. He had occasional tremors, which worsened each day. After being seen by the emergency clinic, it was decided to start a low dose of a seizure medication. While this isn't a drug we would necessarily use on kittens (especially those his size), we decided to give him a chance - and we are so glad we did! Scribble soon began to thrive, but had a few fall backs here and there. I think the entire staff fell in love with Scribble. We kept Scribble at the low dose of medication and in July, we were able to completely wean him off. Scribble never had another seizure. Due to his eyesight, he needed a special home with no stairs. While cats are supposed to be agile, Scribble was a bit on the clumsy side and could never master the talent of making it down a set of stairs. In October, a woman came into the shelter who was visiting from Tennessee. She heard about Scribble and was instantly interested in taking him on. Her vet personally called us to discuss his case so we knew he would be going into good hands! His new adopter drove up from Tennessee just to drive back with him, and though we will all miss Scribble, he will be living life in warmer weather. Thanks for your support, Subaru!
Kennebec Valley Humane Society construction is underway!!!!! - STEPHEN S
Earlier this month construction started on the new state of the art Humane Society in Augusta. This project started with a vision that Charlie Shuman, his wife Nancy, and their children Steve and Elissa of Charlie's Subaru in Augusta had many years ago. The current humane society in town was starting to outgrow its facility a few years back, that's when Charlie stepped into action. His wife Nancy was driving in Augusta one afternoon and stumbled across a large farm property that had recently gone up for sale. She quickly went into action and helped the society purchase the land which would be home to the new state of the art shelter that will be named the Nancy Shuman Humane Society in her honor. Charlie's has now upped it's donation level to $2,000,000. It has been a lifelong dream of Nancy and Charlie to construct a new shelter, now that dream is becoming a reality with construction underway with a completion date of next fall. Charlie's Family and their organization have been huge supporters of the Kennebec Valley Humane Society for over 30 years. They have hosted many charity auctions, been involved in boards and committees, and contributed hundreds of volunteer hours to this cause that they hold so near and dear to their hearts.
Charlie's Subaru donates blankets to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Organization - STEPHEN S
Steve Shuman and Tony Quatrano from Charlie's Subaru recently met up with Steve Pekock from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to donate blankets for patients undergoing treatment for patients who have been stricken with this terrible disease. Charlie's hopes that these blankets can provide just a little more comfort for those receiving treatments. Along with the blankets were children's packages that included coloring books, pencils, and other such things to help pass the time for kids. The donation took place at the Alfond Center for cancer care in Augusta, a facility that provides top notch cancer treatments to people from all over the state. Charlie's Subaru and the Shuman family have been strong supporters of the center for many years, and were one of the top donators to help build the center years ago.
Ground breaking ceremony for the new Children's Center in Augusta!!!! - STEPHEN S
Charlie's Subaru is pleased to announce that the construction of the new state of the art Children's Center is now underway!!! Charlie's has been a major supporter of the Center and all it does for Children with special needs in Augusta and surrounding areas. Charlie's originally started by pledging a donation of $750,000 to the center, but has now upped it's Contribution to over $1,000,000!!!! Charlie's has been supporting the center for many years up until this point, but it was getting to the point that it was getting harder and harder to get all the children the help they needed due to the current facility being at maximum capacity. With the new facility the Children's Center in Augusta is able to help an additional 100 children get the help and services they need.
Pet adoption Event at Charlie's Subaru - Steve S
In November Charlie's Subaru held a pet adoption event in which the dealership took care of all the adoption costs. Charlie's Subaru proudly teamed up with the Kennebec Valley Humane Society in Augusta for the event. We are pleased to say that at the event we were able to find homes for a total of 19 pets!!!! Cats, kittens, dogs,and even a few guiney pigs were able to find their new forever homes!!!
Charlie's Subaru and the KVHS - Hiliary R
Charlie's Subaru and the Shuman family are proud to announce that they have made the initial donation of $750,000 toward the construction of the brand new state of the art Kennebec Valley Humane Society facility. This new facility will help even more animals find loving homes in the central Maine area and beyond. Charlie's Subaru's total investment to the project is going to be $2,000,000+ and hope to have the project completed, which will be named after Charlie's wife Nancy, sometime late next year. Charlie's Subaru, Charlie, and his family have always been huge supporters of local humane societies throughout the state of Maine because of their extreme love for animals of all kinds. Over the years Charlie’s has sponsored various fundraisers because of their love of animals including live auction events, animal adoption events, an dog owner “Mutt Strutt” owner walk, and much, much more. It has been a lifelong dream for Charlie to be able to build a new animal shelter down the street from its Augusta, Maine location. His dream has finally become a reality.... "When I started this dealership in 1986 I always told myself that I was successful that I would make it my priority to give back to the community that has been so good to us.” This is a quote that Charlie said 35 years ago and words he still lives by to this day. Due to his success and the success of the organization Charlie’s is able to not only give an initial donation of $750,000 to get the humane project started, but has also pledged to donate $1,000,000 to the new Children’s Center in Augusta which helps kids with special needs both socially and academically. The hope is to have the project completed in the next 18-20 months.
Charlie's Breast Cancer Awareness Event - Steve S
Once again this year Charlie's Subaru will help in the fight the help knock out cancer in Maine. This October Charlie's will be partnering with the Alfond Center for Cancer Care at Maine General Hospital to help raise funds to combat the battle with cancer in our state. Charlie's will be donating a portion of the proceeds of every vehicle sold to the center for cancer care with the ultimate goal of trying to raise $30,000! Since we started this program almost seven years ago we have been able to raise over $175,000 for the Alfond Center.
Helping feed the greater Augusta Area! - Steve S
Charlie's Subaru has always been very involved in the community and for the month of March to align with the Subaru of America's "Feed America" program, we decided to help feed Augusta. We decided to have a food drive to benefit the Augusta Food Bank which services hundreds of local families regularly. Through the hard work and dedication of our staff and amazing customers we were able to collect over 2,000 pounds of food strictly through donations! This was our first time doing something of this nature, as a direct collection and donation but based on the response from customers, staff and the Augusta Food Bank we will doing this again!
Above and Beyond - Amanda N
Each time I’ve bought a Subaru from Charlie’s in Augusta, ME their team has gone above and beyond to ensure that all my questions are answered and that I’m both happy with the new car and feeling confident about driving it. This is no small feat! I admittedly have a lot of questions. While I like the idea of much of the new technology in vehicles today, I can become overwhelmed by all the different features. The staff at Charlie’s spent hours going through everything with me and setting everything up. I truly feel like the car is customized just for me now! The service department has also always gone above and beyond to make sure that any issues are resolved quickly and completely. They listen carefully, ask thoughtful questions, and then get right to work. With my first Subaru, the remote car starter just did not work well — but they couldn’t reproduce the problem. I brought them a video to show them what happened, they did research, and ultimately ended up putting in a larger battery free of charge. That creative move solved the problem! They kept me in the loop the whole way through - patiently explaining their process. They also go above and beyond to make sure I feel confident about the cars I drive. As a side note: they even hire shuttle drivers who are very reliable/on time, get to know you and are quite friendly so that it’s easy to leave your car with them for the day! It’s all excellent customer service - driven by a commitment to effective communication and making sure the customer is both happy and confident about the car they drive. Beyond me, I am aware that the Shuman family goes above and beyond to support all sorts of organizations in Central Maine. Some people simply have projects they are passionate about, but the Charlie’s family seems to be passionate about supporting the whole community. I think I’ve seen their logo for support on everything from the local humane society (I think when I bought my most recent car, they were donations $100 to the animal shelter for every car sold ) to the local hospital (which offers classes designed to give everyone the tools to become healthy... guided hikes, cooking classes, yoga, meditation, etc — all at low or no cost), to colleges and universities that serve Maine kids (direct donations or sponsoring things like a car giveaway and participation at golf tournaments to help bring in even more donors — and as a side note, Charlie himself comes to these events to show support)... I’m sure they do even more — all above and beyond just simple charitable giving to show that they want to support the community — the whole community. While I think the cost of the Subaru I got this past time was significantly more than I would have paid at other dealerships, no one else was willing to spend this much time helping me through the sales and service pieces — and no one else does as much for the local community. They truly do go above and beyond across the board and I hope you’ll consider recognizing them for this! Maybe doing so would inspire other retailers to do the same — which will just grow the overall impact they have even more!
