2021 Rhyme Year in Review
2021 brought many of the same challenges of the previous year but with the innovation and creativity of many, great progress was made.
We continued our partnership with the Forward Madison Football Club for their 2021 season and hosted giveaways with them to reward and connect with our social media followers.
The Rhyme marketing team launched the Rhyme Learning Hub on the website in December. The Learning Hub was designed with our clients in mind, to use a resource, featuring Case Studies, an ever-expanding Video Library, and other Education Resources, such as our MFP Buying Guide and SMB Security Essentials.
Rhyme was selected as a 2021 Elite Dealer by ENX Magazine. This year, the Elite Dealers were selected based on numerous criteria, from quality technical and customer service to capturing new business, enhanced marketing strategies, and emphasizing corporate culture. One reason Rhyme was considered an Elite Dealer by ENX Magazine was based on our growth in our educational content created to support our clients.
“The past 20 months have been challenging and inspiring at the same time. I’m so proud of our people who innovated, adapted, and changed how they do what they do best,” said Kendall Steinhoff, Marketing Director of Rhyme. “We have invested in training, new marketing initiatives and anything we could do to better ourselves during this time. The marketplace has changed and so have we. I believe with the team we have now we are stronger than ever, and we will continue to offer the best customer service experience we can to our clients. Everyone here is honored to be recognized as an Elite Dealer and they take great pride in the role they play to get Rhyme to this level as a Dealer.”
Rhyme continues to grow and added several talented people to our staff in 2021. We added 17 new people to our team in sales, service, IT, and administrative roles! Every year we are determined to get better at what we do and have the team in place to support our growing number of clients. The Rhyme team is consistently living up to the Rhyme Core Values of excellence, integrity, growth-oriented, team player, and compassion.
One of our top priorities year after year is to grow our level of community involvement and support and this year was more important than ever to step up. Notable community involvement moments from 2021 included:
- The Lee Lake Polar Bear Plunge, held in Cazenovia Wisconsin, celebrated its 21styear with a full virtual event and online auction. The Polar Plunge benefits the American Cancer Society and G.R.A.C.E. (Greater Richland Area Cancer Elimination). The event raised over $18,000 in total—bringing the 21-year total to over $400,000! We held an internal fundraising effort for the event this year at Rhyme and through everyone’s generosity were able to surpass our goal and raise $6,000, bringing the total the Rhyme Time group has raised to over $70,000 in the past 12 years.
- Raising over $22,000 at the 13th Annual Steve Ennis Memorial Golf Classic! Continuing the safety measures put in place in 2020, Rhyme held the event with the silent auction, fundraising, registration, and payment all done online via the event website. The event raised $22K this year, which brings our 13-year total to over $222K. Every year Rhyme gives out scholarships to students that have been touched by cancer. We do this in honor of Steve Ennis and Jack Steinhoff; two men that always represented Hard Work – Determination – Optimism and "Making Every Day Count”. We have awarded 70 scholarships to date and $13,500 was awarded to the 10 recipients for 2021.
- K Cancer Blood Drive – Rhyme hosted a blood drive at our Rockford office in support of the K Cancer Blood Drive created by the K Cancer Softball team. Their goal is to strike-out childhood cancer. The 10 Day Blood Drive had 37 total donors, including 9 new donors; the equivalent of 48 lives saved.
- Rhyme Holiday Giving – Rhyme matched donations raised by our employees for many local causes this past holiday season, including the Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign and the United for Waukesha Community Fund. Rhyme also made a $2,500 donation to the Kentucky Relief Fund.
As the year ends there is uncertainty of what 2022 will bring, but also hope and in our communities’ strength and the knowledge that we all have the ability to join together and help one another in times of need. Thank you again to all our employees, vendors, and clients for their support this year. We look forward to serving you in 2022.
