Virginia tire dealers spotlight local charities

WOODBRIDGE, Va. — ST Billingsley and Scott Whitling, who operate two tire dealerships in Woodbridge, have made supporting local charities a second business, literally.

In 2015, their company, B&W Associates, launched an award-winning online news site, "What's Up Prince William" (wupw.news), that publicizes the activities and fundraising events of local nonprofit organizations as well as feature local businesses and people doing good works in Prince William County.

Mr. Billingsley said he was involved in several nonprofits, including the chamber of commerce and community organizations, but wanted to do more to help fundraising events.

"We needed a way for our community to be able to talk about nonprofits and promote their events and their fundraisers and really just talk about what they do on a consistent basis. And also do it for them for no charge whatsoever. So that is kind of how it got started," he said.

B&W Associates operates two auto repair shops: HomeTowne Auto Repair & Tire and Steve's Auto Repair & Tire, both in Woodbridge and located just 50 yards apart from each other.

With a small studio inside the HomeTowne office and the help of two full-time and two part-time employees, WUPW posts hundreds of in-house-produced videos and written content on its website and on social media platforms.

Mr. Billingsley estimates it costs the dealership about $100,000 a year to run the website operation. Unlike typical newsites that support their online operations with advertising, WUPW is financially supported by the dealership.

"It gives us a way to be out in the community all the time," he said, adding, "We like doing it. Even when it's been difficult and we want to say 'Let's just hang it up,' it's the part that we do for the nonprofits that makes it worthwhile. It's rewarding and we like doing it."

The site serves a dual purpose. While a majority of the content highlights community nonprofits, about 5% to 10% features automotive service content. The only advertising B&W does is through the taglines indicating the website is sponsored by the two dealerships.

Mr. Billingsley's wife Karen manages the website and the dealership employs Erin Flynn as editor of the content, a part-time video editor and another part-time employee who also works as a part-time shuttle driver for the dealerships.

The dealership has also partnered with Northern Virginia Community College to have student interns help produce some videos and content.

Mr. Billingsley estimates he spends about 15 to 20 hours a week himself taking video and photos of events for the website "and 50 hours at the shop!" he added.

Sometimes he'll keep a camera in his car so he can cover nonprofit events on the weekends.

The main nonprofits WUPW promotes are: Action in Community Through Service (ACTS), The Arc of Greater Prince William, the Prince William County/Manassas Boys & Girls Clubs and the National Museum of Americans in Wartime.

The charities have told Mr. Billingsley that the WUPW coverage has benefited the organizations by building awareness of their operations.

"I do say it's worth it," Mr. Billingsley said. "I know it's not worth it to everyone to do this. This is kind of a weird kind of setup. It's not your norm. But people can do a scaled-down version of it in their town. I can see it working very well right now, especially because news is so fragmented."

People in the county are becoming familiar with WUPW, but they don't always make its connection to the repair shops, he said.

"One of the mistakes we made early on is we weren't telling people what we were doing. So now we put our little (WUPW) business card in our safety bags we give to our customers so they can see that."

WUPW has about 24,000 Facebook followers and close to 900 videos posted on YouTube. WUPW also has a presence on Instagram and Twitter.

The dealership is not planning to expand the scope of the news site, he said.

"We intentionally built it to be what we call 'hyperlocal,' because this is the area that we're in, this is where we want to talk about, this is where we want to support."

The team has culled ideas from the media world by joining several news associations and attending conferences.

All the hard work has paid off — WUPW has won several Virginia Press Association awards in recent years for its coverage of various nonprofits.

WUPW recently won accolades for its coverage of a volunteer fire department, an 84-hour project, he said, and it won an award for a video for the Prince William Food Rescue that provided instructions on how to use the charity's app and information on its program.

Some of WUPW's projects are quick videos where the staff talks with people about their nonprofits and local businesses doing good works in the community.

Some videos are done on site while others are created in the in-house studio that features curtains, lights on the ceiling and chairs.

The website also tries to support other local businesses. For instance, WUPW recently alerted viewers about the new address of a local pizza shop that had to relocate.

In 2017, WUPW received the Community Outreach Award from the Prince William Chamber of Commerce, and in 2019 it was recognized by The Arc for its efforts to enhance community awareness of the nonprofit's mission.

Mr. Billingsley said running the website doesn't require much equipment.

"With the way cellphones are now, I would say just get a tripod, get a cellphone holder, a microphone … and you can actually do some videos like this basically wherever you go. …

"If you want to be part of your community and you want to do stuff, it's a way to highlight other people and you meet a lot of other people by doing it. And that's why I say it's worth it."

He said WUPW has gone through several iterations. At first the dealership wanted the site to just focus on Woodbridge, then it decided to cover the whole county, then it added news.

But the dealership finally decided to refocus just on nonprofits and people doing good works.

"It does take a lot of work," Mr. Billingsley said. "It can turn into a second job. Either you feel it that you want to do it or you don't. ...

"Even though we've gone through different phases, the main thing of why we started this and why we're doing it hasn't change. As long as you keep the core that we want to talk about nonprofits and people and businesses doing good things in the community and that's your focus, I think in certain areas that would work very, very well."

He said even a smaller version of WUPW for rural areas, or even an occasional blog post, would help nonprofits in local communities, especially communities that no longer have their own community newspaper.

"Every town has a YMCA or a Boys & Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts and all the different organizations, the Rotary clubs, the Elks lodges.

"Those organizations exist across the United States and they all need help to get the word out about what they do," he said.

ST Billingsley, right, co-owner of B&W Associates in Woodbridge, Va., helps produce a video for the dealership's What's Up Prince William (WUPW.news) online news site. The site provides free coverage and event promotion for nonprofits in Prince William County.

ST Billingsley, co-owner of Steve's Auto Repair and HomeTowne Auto Repair, prepares to record a video of a local nonprofit organization's event for his dealerships' What's Up Prince William (WUPW.news) online news site that provides free publicity and event promotion for non-profits.