United Auto Sales Community Involvement in Utica, NY
Community Educational Events
Fire Truck Spectacular: The New Hartford Fire Department sponsors the Fire Truck Spectacular every year at the New Hartford Shopping Center. All local Fire Departments are invited to come with their best trucks. It's a great way for all local towns and cities to participate, get to know each other, and for local residents to learn about fire safety! Insurance Agents are always on hand to go over options, the smokehouse is always staffed to show children (and adults!) what to do in the event of a fire, and car seat safety checks are also provided.
Children's Miracle Network Telethon: each year, we have volunteered our time to answer phones during the Children's Miracle Network Telethon. While they no longer hold telethons, we continually support CMN as part of our local Hospitals with a televised check presentation. They provide assistance to women and children's services. They are a huge part of our community, by helping premature babies stay local, provide medical assistance to mothers and children no matter what their financial status is, and even other services like speech and occupational therapies.
Utica Zoo: Our Auto Group is proud to support our area's local Zoo for the 2025 year! Our sponsorship will go towards educational events that the Zoo holds, as well as their signature events like the family friendly Halloween Spooktacular!
Holiday Giving & Donations
Steet Ponte Auto Group Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive: each November, we fill a vehicle in each of our showrooms to collect food donations for our Annual Food Drive. Each year, the food goes to a different non-profit organization the day before Thanksgiving. In years past, we have donated to The Rescue Mission, Feed Our Vets, the Thea Bowman House, Hope House, and Johnson Park Center.
Steet Ponte Auto Group Annual Coats for Kids Coat Drive: we are going on year 6 with our coat drive that benefits the Utica, Rome, Herkimer, CVA, Mayfield and Johnstown Elementary Schools. We collect cold weather clothing for the elementary students in our area who do not have access to clothing for our cold winters in Upstate New York!
Steet Ponte Auto Group Annual Holiday Giving Trees: for the past 15 years, we have donated to local schools by adopting families who are in need of assistance during the holidays. This past year, we set up Giving Trees in our showrooms, with tags for gifts and needed items for the children and babies in the House of the Good Shepherd.
Internal Events
While United Auto loves to participate in community events, we are also fans of spending time with one another to help foster relationships and communication throughout our other stores! Each year we hold internal events and contests to strengthen our bonds!
Halloween Costume Contest
Each year, everyone at our stores are encouraged to dress up for Halloween to have some fun! We hold a costume contest via Facebook: whoever's picture gets the most likes wins prizes! We give out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prizes for costumes, and each year they get better and better!
Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest & Holiday Party
Each of our stores has a catered, holiday lunch party at the store. We close up shop for a bit, gather for a party and always enjoy catered food from our favorite local restaurants. At our parties, everyone is encouraged to wear their best Ugly Christmas Sweater (or costume.) Like our Halloween contest, pictures are posted on Facebook and the ones with the most likes wins!
Steet Ponte Auto Group Company Picnic
Our Company Picnic has grown from 50 attendees at Enchanted Forest Water Safari in Old Forge, NY, to over 500 over the course of the years since acquiring multiple different stores. We provide tickets for our employees and their immediate family members, and also provide extra tickets at a discounted rate. We have our own pavilion to leave items in throughout the day, a fantastic lunch is catered by Water Safari, and what better way to spend a summer day in Upstate New York than at Water Safari!
Steet Ponte Auto Group Golf Open
We hold our Annual Golf Tournament for employees and local vendors and businesses that we work with regularly at a local golf course each summer! It's a great way to relax on a Sunday and enjoy the good weather. Prizes are given to the winning team, and we have so many raffles that everyone always leaves with some kind of prize!
Local Events
United Auto Sales of Utica is a locally owned, family operated business that takes pride in our community and local events. We take part in so many local events throughout the year to help better our community, improve family and children's lives, educate local residents, and are just a great way to get together and have some fun!
New Hartford Memorial Day Parade
We love participating in the parade every year. It's a great way for all of us to get into the community, show off our cars, and end at the New Hartford Fire Department for refreshments and tours afterwards!
Mohawk Valley Go Red for Women
In support of the Mohawk Valley's American Heart Association Chapter, each year we wear red on the National Go Red for Women Day to raise awareness for women's heart disease!