Help QZ’s Business Survive the Covid-19 Crisis
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Meet my friend, QZ. His real name is Quanzell Zirker. But to all of his clients, “QZ.”
One of eleven children, QZ grew up on a farm in southeast Michigan. He learned the value of hard work from his father, who worked in a Ford plant and altered his factory shift to be able to do needed farm work with the change of the seasons, leaving farm jobs for QZ and his siblings when at work at the factory.
In 1990 QZ built his own small business, entirely from scratch—a transportation service. He carries clients to and from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Over the last 30 years, he grew the business that at its peak employed four other people, whom he always treated generously. Although new ride share technologies threaten businesses like his, QZ developed such a loyal client base that his business always survived.
He did everything right, played by every rule, and always made the extra effort—showing up early to meet his clients, invariably with a warm smile, helping hand, and words of wisdom (“It’s always nice to be on solid ground.”) His generosity of spirit and attention to others is well known to all of us who have met him.
QZ is a victim of COVID-19, an economic victim. His airport transportation business has been decimated with the decline in air travel. Before the pandemic, QZ and his fellow driver (employee) averaged 108 trips to the Detroit Airport every week (he has always worked 7 days a week). Today, and over the past many months, they average 5 total trips between them. The recent spike in infections threatens not only to end QZ’s business for good, but threatens him personally. Yet there is no government program to rescue a small businessman who has made a life out of helping others.
I am asking for your help. For those of you part of the University of Michigan or greater Detroit communities who know QZ, I am sure you will be happy to help. For those of you who have never met him, I am asking not because he is more deserving than all of the innumerable small-business owners struggling to survive the pandemic, but because he is in front of me, because I see his need up close, because he is my friend.
My minimum fundraising goal is to cover his car payments and maintenance for the year. But maybe with your help we can do more.
Thank you, so much, for anything you can do.
One of eleven children, QZ grew up on a farm in southeast Michigan. He learned the value of hard work from his father, who worked in a Ford plant and altered his factory shift to be able to do needed farm work with the change of the seasons, leaving farm jobs for QZ and his siblings when at work at the factory.
In 1990 QZ built his own small business, entirely from scratch—a transportation service. He carries clients to and from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Over the last 30 years, he grew the business that at its peak employed four other people, whom he always treated generously. Although new ride share technologies threaten businesses like his, QZ developed such a loyal client base that his business always survived.
He did everything right, played by every rule, and always made the extra effort—showing up early to meet his clients, invariably with a warm smile, helping hand, and words of wisdom (“It’s always nice to be on solid ground.”) His generosity of spirit and attention to others is well known to all of us who have met him.
QZ is a victim of COVID-19, an economic victim. His airport transportation business has been decimated with the decline in air travel. Before the pandemic, QZ and his fellow driver (employee) averaged 108 trips to the Detroit Airport every week (he has always worked 7 days a week). Today, and over the past many months, they average 5 total trips between them. The recent spike in infections threatens not only to end QZ’s business for good, but threatens him personally. Yet there is no government program to rescue a small businessman who has made a life out of helping others.
I am asking for your help. For those of you part of the University of Michigan or greater Detroit communities who know QZ, I am sure you will be happy to help. For those of you who have never met him, I am asking not because he is more deserving than all of the innumerable small-business owners struggling to survive the pandemic, but because he is in front of me, because I see his need up close, because he is my friend.
My minimum fundraising goal is to cover his car payments and maintenance for the year. But maybe with your help we can do more.
Thank you, so much, for anything you can do.
Organizer and beneficiary
Steven Croley
Organizer
Ann Arbor, MI
Anna Croley
Beneficiary