Shamus Ian Fatzinger/ Fairfax County Times
May Bernhardt owns Mayflowers at Reston Town Center.
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The right and smart thing to do
For two thriving small business owners, giving back comes naturally
For many people, Thanksgiving is the official kick-off of the “giving season.”
But for Marion Myers and May Bernhardt, the owners of two thriving small businesses in Reston, giving back is a year-round affair.
Both Reston residents —Myers, the president of Myers Public Relations, and Bernhardt, owner of Mayflowers —say giving back to their community comes naturally. Along the way, they discovered it not only feels good but is good for business, too.
Myers, whose PR firm recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, describes her pro bono work for a variety of Northern Virginia nonprofits as “soft marketing … small gifts of time that always pay back, that people remember.”
“When I hear people learn of me from my giving, it’s wonderful,” said Bernhardt, who has been in the floral design business in the Reston-Herndon area since the early 1980s.
“I’m not in a big league,” said Bernhardt, who is known for her distinctive sculptural and elegant floral designs. “But I still can give.”
Often done behind-the-scenes or anonymously, among the longtime beneficiaries of Myers’ and Bernhardt’s separate contributions are Reston Interfaith, the Initiative for Public Art Reston, Kids R First and the Medical Care for Children Partnership.
Reston Interfaith, including its annual Best of Reston Gala, is a favorite of both. Interfaith, which helps more than 250,000 clients each year, provides transitional housing, encourages the development of affordable housing, supports Reston’s Embry Rucker Community Shelter, furnishes child care at Reston’s Laurel Learning Center, offers parent education, and supports food and financial assistance.
Pro bono contributions from small businesses such as Myers’ and Bernhardt’s “are the lifeblood of what we do … the bedrock,” said Interfaith Executive Director Kerrie Wilson.
“Both are great examples of year-round giving. I still want big business contributing, but small businesses shouldn’t discount what they can do. … And it’s more critical now than ever.”
The unique flower arrangements that grace the gala and other Interfaith events are frequently and quietly donated by Bernhardt, who sold rose bouquets at her recent Reston Town Center first anniversary party with all proceeds going to Interfaith.
The pro bono work of Myers and her team of eight, who specialize in entertainment and event planning for mixed-use life-style centers, helped “generate awareness we couldn’t generate ourselves,” Wilson said.
Myers, she said thankfully, also has facilitated important connections for the nonprofit, such as integrating a fundraising community walk for Interfaith into the new Festival on Square at Reston Heights.
Doing volunteer work actually gave Myers, who previously ran art galleries and custom framing businesses, her start as the owner of her own firm.
Working at the time as marketing director for the Health Club of Reston, she began doing pro bono public relations for local nonprofits, starting with the Greater Reston Arts Center.
That volunteer work caught the eye of Linda Miller, now principal of Miller Marketing who was, at the time, in charge of the marketing and programming at Reston Town Center. Hired as a PR consultant, Myers formally started her own business in 1991.
Because of her strong community knowledge and connections, Myers was able to increase coverage of the center in a surprisingly small amount of time — eclipsing the efforts of the large, expensive downtown PR firm that had been doing the job.
“That established my reputation,” Myers said.
Still successfully doing the marketing and programming for Reston Town Center as well its tenant relations, her firm’s success there still is drawing business.
“People call and ask: Would you do the same thing here?” Myers said.
Rather than slowing down in this economy, Myers PR continues to grow. New clients include Mazza Gallery in Chevy Chase and Washington Harbor in Georgetown, and she has four more Reston Town Center-type properties lined up as future clients.
“They see the value of marketing; in this tough market; they want to stand out,” she said.
Married and the mother of three grown children, Myers added, “PR can be pretty aggressive. We joke about being the ‘nice’ PR firm. … I nurture my projects.”
Still a colleague, though no longer associated with Reston Town Center, Miller, a PR and marketing professional for more than 30 years, recalled that the first five years she and Myers worked together their pro bono work raised about $1 million for community groups.
“We’d brainstorm with organizations and work with volunteers to make it happen,” she said. “It was something we did because it was the right and smart thing to do. And we felt so good about raising money for charity, and not just a little money, it was a lot of money.”
Bernhardt — who previously was a food and beverage manager for hotels and restaurants — started her floral design business in her Herndon garage. As it grew, she moved to a Sterling warehouse. At that time, she was doing mostly large floral designs for corporate and hotel clients. Although she still enjoys and values her large-scale work, her greatest satisfaction, she said, comes from working directly with people one-on-one.
In a unique business, she noted she and her eight to 10 employees, who moved from Plaza America to Reston Town Center, are part of the most important moments in people’s lives, everything from birth to death.
“I speak from the heart when I do design, and I get great joy seeing what it does for other people. … They become friends,” said Bernhardt, who understands her regular patrons needs so well that floral orders often simply will say “May knows.”
When you relate so personally to your customers, it only is natural that strong relationships develop, and those relationships, in turn, grow the desire to also connect with community at-large, she said.
“I’m so blessed and surrounded by friends who are giving and who give to the community,” Bernhardt said. “It’s contagious.”
She credits close friend and “mentor” Joe Ritchey — a well-known Reston civic activist and principal of the real estate development consulting firm, Prospective Inc. — with making her aware of all the benefits of giving back. It was Ritchey, she said, who initially got her involved with Reston Interfaith
It did not take too much convincing. Originally from the Philippines, Bernhardt, the mother of three grown children, grew up in a family of physicians and others who made a practice of supporting those in need.
Although she has made giving an integral part of what she does, Bernhardt said, she actually prefers to give anonymously.
“I don’t like people to like me for what I give. I see giving as a service not a material thing.”
However, her floral design style is so distinctive, people tend to know its Mayflowers’ work when they see her arrangements at events.
Ritchey said Bernhardt’s “extraordinary” floral arrangements for the Hyatt Regency Reston lobby prompted him, 18 years ago, to seek her out. First a customer and then a valued friend, he said, “May gives much more than people realize.”
Describing her as an “outstanding business person” who works extremely hard and “runs a tight ship,” Ritchey suggested that Bernhardt, as well as Myers, are exemplars of the “important roles small businesses play in building the fabric of a community.”.
Bernhardt said she looks forward to teaching the art if floral design one day and becoming a mentor herself. Myers has already reached that point. She soon will be sharing her insights at seminars for women and other emerging entrepreneurs, sponsored by the County of Fairfaix’s Economic Development Authority and The Women’s Center in Vienna.
She said she plans to discuss the challenges of starting a business and how to market yourself “by doing what you do well and sometimes doing it for free, doing it for organizations you care about.”