TSSA’s Worthy Cause

By Madison Martin

t Shriners Children’s Texas, the hospital has a team of physicians and specialists who are highly trained and experienced in pediatric burn care. The verified burn center specializes in treating children with a variety of different burn injuries ranging from mild to severe. Shriners Children’s Texas also specializes in delivering the highest quality care to children with a variety of orthopedic conditions, complex wound and skin conditions, and plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Located on the campus of the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Shriners Children’s Texas has an experienced team that brings hope and healing. The hospital is driven to make lives richer, easier, and less complex for children and families in Texas and beyond.

Long before StorageGives, StorageAuctions.com has kept close connections and experiences with Shriners Children’s Texas.

StorageAuctions.com has been a huge supporter of the Texas Self Storage Association (TSSA) since year one of business. For over 20 years, the Texas Self Storage Association has chosen Shriners Children’s Texas as the beneficiary of their fundraising efforts, raising over $2 million in lifetime donations. Money is raised through events annually at the Big Ideas In Storage conference through a charity poker tournament, live and silent auctions, raffles, and direct donations.

For this article, we were able to sit down a talk with Doug Hunt, the TSSA’s Charitable Fundraising Chair. The Hunt family has been in the self-storage industry since 1973, when his father built his first facility in Texas. Hunt got actively involved in storage himself in about 1986, when he and his father started building more storage facilities for their family’ portfolio. Currently, Hunt owns eight stores across the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas under Access Self Storage. Access Self Storage currently gives a percentage of all final sales of the units auctioned on StorageAuctions.com to StorageGives, joining other brands and facilities, such as Absolute Self Storage Management and Universal Storage Group.

Lonnie Bickford, owner and CEO of StorageGives and StorageAuctions.com recalled, “StorageAuctions.com has been supporting the Texas Self Storage Association since the first of our company’s operations. We really appreciated the charity work Doug and the TSSA did. We went and toured Shriners Children’s Texas that year; we learned a lot about what happened there. We saw what the money is used for throughout the hospital, and before long before StorageGives, we knew we wanted to help and be a part of that work.”

When asked what made him choose Shriners for the TSSA’s charitable beneficiary, Hunt responded, “Well, truthfully, I wasn’t the one to decide Shriners. The hospital came about when one of the members on the TSSA board, Bill Thomas, who is from the Houston area, suggested we donate to Shriners as a benefactor of our fundraising efforts.”

“It’s a great hospital and a great cause.” added Hunt. “I think anyone who goes on a tour of the facility would certainly understand why we have adopted it as our benefactor. The work it does for people across the country is amazing. They take in kids from anywhere two years old up until 18, and not only are they treating their burns, but they’re also making sure the kids are taken care of in every way, including families. Some of us members of the TSSA have become evangelists for this if you will; we want everyone to be able to get on board with this.”

Hunt recalled the first year of donating to Shriners Children’s 20 years ago, raising around $2,000 for the charity. “We started off the first few years hosting a silent auction and a live auction, and then about seven years ago, I thought maybe we could move it up a notch.”

With that thought, Hunt decided to start out the annual TSSA show with direct pledges, hoping to earn around $50,000 for that year’s show. All it would take would be him getting around 10 people to donate about $5,000 each, which would be a good start on the way to earning that goal. That goal was reached, and then some!

With this attitude, Hunt brought this spirit of giving to the 2023 StorageGives charity gala in New Orleans. He donated two trips to St. Thomas to the auction: one going for $7,400 and the other for $7,500, totaling $14,900. This total was matched by another bidder, coming out to $30,000—all of which was donated to Shriners Children’s!

Thanks to the generosity of members, in 2022 TSSA raised over $250,000 for Shriners Children’s. Through direct donations, the matching challenge, the casino night and poker tournament, and the live and silent auctions at our annual conference, TSSA members pulled together and once again raised funds that will help provide expert specialty medical care to children at no cost to their families. This cause is very near and dear to the heart of the TSSA and has become an annual feel-good experience for three of our major donors who up the ante each year with large donations, creative ideas, and new ways to raise money for the hospital. The TSSA extended a special thanks to fundraising chair Doug Hunt of Access Self Storage, Hank Daughtry of Trusted Self Storage Professionals, and the SBS Construction team made up of Dave Morgan and Steve Schiffman. They were asked why they support Shriners, and they had a lot to say.

“How often do you get asked to donate to various charities each year? For me, the number is upwards of 40 or 50, and while most are worthy causes, there is just something special about Shriners,” says Hunt. “First, it’s the kids. The kids have intense medical needs, from severe burns to stifling orthopedic conditions, and if not for the care they receive at the hospital, they may not survive. The miraculous part is the cost for the family—zero. That’s not a typo; the family pays nothing for care. Shriners Hospitals for Children^® is funded completely by donations from people like us. The generosity of TSSA members is so rare in the business community today. I am proud of our association for stepping up each year to make a difference in the lives of these kids. Thank you to everyone for contributing.”

“Every dollar donated to Shriners Hospitals for Children^® really makes a difference and is used to help treat patients regardless of their ability to pay,” says Daughtry. “I am blessed to be a successful part of the industry as a self-storage developer, property owner, and third-party property manager. My TSSA membership number is 26, which means that I have been an owner about as long as the association has been around, and that has been a blessing also. Thank you TSSA for teaching me so much about self-storage and teaching me how we as owners, developers, and vendors can share our good fortune by generously giving back to the hospital.”

“Steve Schiffman’s father, Albert, was a member of the Shriners back home in New Orleans. We always enjoyed watching his performances as ‘Albo the Clown’ at Shriners events and loved how much joy it brought to the children,” says Morgan. “When TSSA partnered with the Shriners, it was a perfect way of doing something in remembrance of Mr. Schiffman as well as helping children. Since we are both grandparents, we always talk about how we would feel if one of our grandchildren were in need. Our ongoing support of the fundraising efforts on behalf of Shriners is also a way of demonstrating our commitment to TSSA and our industry in Texas. SBS Construction also supports numerous other organizations as part of our core values to help support the communities in which we work.”