Gleaners Community Food Bank

Art Van Furniture provides Gleaners with Fuzzy Dice and a premiere location in front of their Royal Oak Store during the Dream Cruise to raise money to feed the hungry in Oakland County. Fuzzy Dice are sold for $2 a piece, and a team of volunteers works shifts from 8am 8pm selling the dice to passersby. If you are interested in volunteering, contact Colleen Love at 866-GLEANER ext 243 or clove@gcfb.org clove@gcfb.org .

Birdie Day is a day to share a free round of golf with your friends by bringing a frozen turkey (15lbs or larger) to your nearest participating golf course. The turkey will be donated to Gleaners Community Food Bank in order to feed hungry families for Thanksgiving. This event is sponsored by Brighton Commerce Bank.

Officially, Denise Starr is known as Compuware's Chief Administrative Officer. Unofficially, she could be called Compuware's Resident Miracle Worker. To begin with, some may consider it miraculous that anyone can handle as long a list of vital functions as Denise manages at Compuware. Among her responsibilities are all corporate real estate, facilities, purchasing, shipping and receiving, fleet operations, license management, product distribution, insurance, travel, security, building telephone operators, mail services, administrative support and Compuware's 24-hour customer service hotline. Denise joined Compuware in 1989, and held positions of increasing responsibility in facilities and administration including Manager, Director, Senior Vice President and Executive Vice President. In her tenure, Compuware's offices in North America have grown in number from six to more than 45. Among Denise's most notable accomplishments is her role in making the new Compuware world headquarters an incredible place to work and visit. Throughout Compuware's relocation, she oversaw the construction and occupancy of the building, but the job didn't end there. Denise also played--and continues to play--a leading role in bringing services and retail establishments to the building. Denise is responsible for Compuware's child development center, wellness center and cafeteria, as well as the popular shops and restaurants that occupy the building's ground floor. Denise will explain that, in one way or another, everything she does boils down to service--a skill she honed early on in her 13-year career with the Detroit Free Press. As a manager in the circulation department, she was responsible for customer service. She also oversaw the carrier billing system, which she helped to create and roll out to district managers. Doing what Denise does every day takes time and plenty of effort. But she credits her endurance to two things: a passion for having fun and a knack for finding creative solutions to unique challenges. Before switching her major to business administration at the Mercy College of Detroit (now the University of Detroit Mercy), Denise studied social work--and she values the experience for helping her to inspire groups to work together more effectively. A big part of that is keeping work fun. Denise loves what she does, and she shares that passion by openly expressing her sense of humor and encouraging creative thinking among her coworkers. While Denise brings miraculous results to Compuware every day, it's perhaps even more impressive that she still finds time to work miracle after miracle in her community. She makes it a priority to share her talents, influence and compassion with others in some very unique and outgoing ways. Denise serves on a long list of non-profit boards including HAVEN, Hospice Foundation, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, Gleaners Food Bank, Women's Leadership Foundation and the Michigan Minority Business Development Council (for which she is also the Sector Chairperson for IT). Denise's work as a Mentor in Wayne County's Michigan Mentoring Program has resulted in providing direction and motivation to a student who now passionately aspires to work in Compuware's child development center someday. Denise also participates in the Make-a-Wish Foundation's Wish-a-Mile 300-mile bike ride every July. Although not a bicyclist, she'll train three months for the trip. Denise has helped increase participation within Compuware each year, which recently resulted in a donation of more than $80,000. Denise also supports fundraising efforts for the Karmanos Cancer Institute. These considerable contributions are not the limit of Denise's generosity. Very sensitive to problems in her community, Denise always feels compelled to help in any way she can. In the recent past, Denise found clever ways to help the parents of a young girl with the expenses and travel problems associated with getting their daughter a liver transplant. Denise has a grown son who lives in the Western United States. She shares her home in Oakland County with a black Lab named Jake. Additionally, Denise enjoys reading management literature and humorous books--a combination that may someday inspire her to turn her journal into a book on her amusing experiences serving customers.