Community has always been a huge part of AuraFizz. For us, community is about the people and places that shape who you become, and Grosse Pointe has played a major role in that story. All five of us grew up here and attended University Liggett School together, so this area is a big part of who we are today.
After Liggett, Ann Arbor became another important community for John, Will, and me while we attended the University of Michigan. Between Grosse Pointe and Ann Arbor, we’ve been fortunate to be surrounded by communities that have supported us, challenged us, and helped us grow. We want AuraFizz to be one of the ways we give some of that support back.
That idea is what led us to create the Aura Community Initiative. From the beginning, we never wanted AuraFizz to just be about selling a drink. We want to use the company and the platform we are building to bring people together, support meaningful causes, promote health and wellness, and create experiences that have a positive impact on the communities around us.
One of our first efforts through the initiative was organizing a food donation drive to support a church in Ann Arbor that serves people in need. We created an online donation list where members of our community could contribute food and other essentials. Seeing people come together to support the cause showed us what AuraFizz could represent beyond the product itself.
Since launching AuraFizz, we’ve also been focused on becoming more involved throughout Southeast Michigan. We’ve worked with local businesses, fitness studios, markets, athletes, and other organizations through pop-ups, product sampling, partnerships, and community-focused collaborations. Being able to introduce AuraFizz face-to-face and build genuine relationships with the people supporting us has been one of the most rewarding parts of building the company so far.
Our next goal is to continue growing the Aura Community Initiative through more philanthropy, partnerships, and events. One of the causes we are currently supporting is the Run2Revive Rim2Rim Challenge, where we will take on a roughly 50-mile trek through the Grand Canyon with around 10,000 feet of elevation change over two days while raising money to support cancer research. For us, it represents exactly what we want this initiative to become: combining community, health, movement, and giving back to something bigger than ourselves.
Ultimately, we want AuraFizz to grow throughout Southeast Michigan and far beyond it, but we want to grow the right way. That means staying connected to the communities that helped us get started, building real relationships, giving back when we can, and creating experiences that people genuinely want to be a part of.
As AuraFizz grows, our hope is that the Aura Community Initiative grows with it, allowing us to give back not only to Grosse Pointe and Ann Arbor, but to every new community AuraFizz becomes a part of.
