What We Build Together

Some of life’s biggest moments begin with something very small.

Life’s Big Moments Feature Story, September 2026

A few dollars from a paycheck.
A decision to help someone you may never meet.
A company willing to stand behind that generosity and multiply it.

For 30 years, employees at Betz Industries have chosen to support Hospice of Michigan through payroll giving, with the Betz family and company matching their contributions.

Two dollars at a time. Five dollars at a time. Week after week. Year after year.
Over three decades, those individual acts of generosity have grown into something extraordinary.

A Few Dollars Became More Than $1 Million

Several years ago, Betz Industries employees crossed an extraordinary milestone: more than $1 million raised for Hospice of Michigan, with the Betz family helping multiply that generosity by matching employee gifts.

But the real story isn’t the dollar amount.

It is what those dollars have made possible.

They have helped Hospice of Michigan continue saying Yes.

Yes to patients regardless of their ability to pay.

Yes when geography makes care challenging.

Yes when an illness requires special support.

Yes to children and families who need the specialized care of the Jo Elyn Nyman Anchors Programs for Children.

And Yes to families who simply need someone to walk through an uncertain time beside them.

That understanding has become so deeply embedded at Betz Industries that employees speak about Hospice of Michigan’s mission almost as if it were their own.

In many ways, it is.

“There’s nobody like them,” Marcie Hillary of Hospice of Michigan shares. “When I share what this company does, jaws drop.”

But what makes this story remarkable isn’t simply how much has been given.

It is why people continue to give.

Many Betz employees have experienced hospice personally. They know what it means when someone shows up for a family during one of life’s hardest chapters. For them, giving becomes a way to carry that care forward.

As one employee shares,

“It’s my way of giving back.”

This is what happens when generosity becomes part of a culture.

When people understand that caring for one another matters.

When a workplace becomes a community, and a community decides that someone else’s hardest day is worth showing up for.

That is how impact is built.

Not always through one grand gesture, but through thousands of quiet decisions made over time.

And the impact reaches much farther than the walls of the company.

For 30 years, that belief has traveled into hospital rooms, bedrooms and family homes across Michigan. It has helped care for people ranging from newborn babies to those more than 100 years old. It has helped families experience comfort, dignity and support when they needed it most.

This month’s Life’s Big Moments story celebrates far more than an anniversary.

It celebrates thousands of quiet choices to care and the extraordinary difference those choices can make over time.

To the Betz family and generations of Betz Industries employees: thank you for 30 years of standing beside Hospice of Michigan, our patients and their families.

Because a legacy isn’t always something we leave behind.

Sometimes, it is something we build together while we are here.

What can small acts of generosity, repeated over time, build in your family, workplace or community?

Credits
Featured Video Interviews & Meaningful Conversations:  Jordan Carson
Visual Storytelling & Video Editing: Matt Ferguson
Images: Betz Industries, Inc

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