The Story of Tommy’s Express: Helping Hands Fundraiser Program

The story of Tommy’s Express starts when the Essenburg family established Quality Car Wash in 1969 and expanded to seven locations across West Michigan. Years of innovation and operations experience propelled the Essenburgs to offer their car wash parts and equipment through Tommy Car Wash Systems. In 2016, the Tommy’s Express franchise was born with a vision to establish a recognized national car wash brand and expand globally.

Helping Hands Fundraiser

In 1999, after three decades of continuous support and love from the Holland community, the team at Quality Car Wash sought to repay the community for their kindness by giving back. Thus, the Quality Car Wash team created the Helping Hands Fundraising Program. 

The program allowed organizations in the area to buy discounted wash vouchers which they could then resell and keep the proceeds.

This program created unlimited fundraising potential for community members and program users, allowing them to raise money for their cause.

Helping Hands Impacts Communities

Groups that participated in the fundraiser came from all corners of the Holland community: Churches, youth groups, baseball teams, schools, science clubs, little league soccer teams, and nonprofits. 

When the fundraisers finished, the groups earned an average of $1,000 to return to their organizations.

With the growing demand for the innovations implemented by Quality Car Wash, Tommy Car Wash Systems was specifically developed to handle producing, selling, and distributing the technology created by the Essenburgs. 

Paving the Way

The success of this brand then led to the creation of the Tommy’s Express Car Wash franchise, which would be the name for washes outside of West Michigan. Turning Tommy’s into a franchise was done to achieve the modernity needed for creating a global car wash brand.

Our guests, families, and community have always been a priority at Tommy’s Express, and we look back at our roots with pride. View our history timeline to learn more about the Quality Car Wash and Tommy’s Express story, or check out our blog!