Archive for June, 2010

Fork it over for charity

Meatball on forkMonitronics has a strong history of community involvement and giving to those in need. Our Central Station, in particular, has been leading the way with volunteerism with Cell Phones for Soldiers, help during a toy drive, sorting donations for the nonprofit Metrocrest, serving food at the Salvation Army, and more.

That department has started another campaign this month to help the Salvation Army again: a fork drive.

“When we were serving food, we noticed that they didn’t have enough for everyone and lunch had to be paused several times to wash them. People were waiting and we realized they needed more,” said Mary Jensby, Director of the Monitronics Central Station. “Our employees have such a history of generosity and many have extra silverware sitting at home. It seemed like a great idea.”

Each floor of the Monitronics main tower and auxiliary building has a box for forks and the drive runs through early July.

How to keep up with safety recalls

iStock_000011714357XSmallI recently started reading the Consumer Reports website for some high-tech recommendations when their safety blog caught my eye. Whoa. Recalls galore! And on products that I use!

This got me to thinking about how I can stay better informed of recalls. It appears that the Internet is my source. There’s not really a one-stop shop, but there are several great resources.

For updates on recalls on products like toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals, check out the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission‘s website; you can find info on over 4,500 product recalls on their site.

Another site I dig is Recalls.gov, where six federal agencies with vastly different jurisdictions have joined together to create a “one stop shop” for U.S. government recalls. You can join e-mail lists and get recall info delivered to you inbox on everything from food and boats to medicine and cosmetics.

Other groups:
Safe Kids
Consumer Watch
SafeCar.gov

Part of staying safe is staying informed and these sites can help. Let us know about your recall experience in the comments section. Would love to hear about it.

Central Station up for prestigous awards

Anne and GregMonitronics has reason to be proud: Greg Hurst and Anne Glickstein have been nominated for prestigious awards from the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA).

Greg is nominated for manager of the year and Anne for support of the year. In addition, we are nominated for Central Station of the year.

The winners will be announced June 16 at the CSAA Central Station Awards Breakfast in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Good luck!

Monitronics collects cell phones for soldiers

Central Station employees recently dropped off the Monitronics donation of 61 cell phones for the Cell Phones for Soldiers program.The charity helps our soldiers overseas call home and employees here

“Because this program was extended their program to Farmers Branch, the home of Monitronics, we wanted to be part of the effort to support our armed forces,” said Mary Jensby,  Central Station Director. “Our employees have such a generous spirit that I knew they would want to participate.”

Anyone still wanting to give a cell phone for this cause can click on this link to find a donation center in the United States.