By Emma Peterson. 

Explore how SRS Distribution is giving back through their Raise the Roof Foundation.  

SRS Distribution is one of the leading roofing distributors in the United States. With over 435 locations and 2,500 trucks across 47 states, their team is committed to “leveraging our business expertise and resources to help those in need in the communities in which we operate and throughout the United States in an effort to help address our nation’s most pressing challenges.” To learn more about how they work towards this mission, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Mikell Bollinger, the vice president of community engagement for SRS’ Raise the Roof Foundation, for an episode of Roofing Road Trips®. 

Raise the Roof is a separate legal entity from SRS and is how they organize their charitable operations. SRS’ founders’ personal passion for giving back helped make Raise the Roof a reality. Mikell explained, “It really started with our founders. Ron Ross, who was the founder and initial leader of SRS, and also Dan Tinker, along with Gary Swan, who was the chief financial officer, and John Davis, who was the chief legal officer at that time, were all very passionate about philanthropy individually... They give back to their communities in big ways, and so in 2011, they decided to formalize the way the SRS was handling its charitable activities into Raise the Roof.” 

Since its founding, Raise the Roof has built a network of nonprofit partners, events and campaigns all focused on giving back. A great example of the work they do is their mobilization in the aftermath of the Texas floods in 2025. Mikell shared, “We work to make the foundation nimble and quick to respond to developing emergencies. With the flooding in Texas, we knew we had to respond quickly, so we had teams on both the business side and the foundation side working to build a campaign to support the affected people.” 

This support came in multiple forms, from getting supplies to volunteers and relief teams in the field, as well as fundraising over half a million dollars to send to relief agencies directly in the community, such as the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill County. Mikell reflected on that campaign, sharing, “Disaster relief is one of our key mission pillars. It really is important to us, and we want to be quick to respond, which is so necessary in times of disaster assistance. What’s really incredible about what we do is how it brings together so many people who just want to help. We certainly can't do anything that we do without the support of generous donors like RoofersCoffeeShop®, volunteers and friends of the foundation.” 

Listen to the whole episode to learn more about SRS’ Raise the Roof Foundatation.

By Emma Peterson. 

Get ready to rock out with SRS at IRE 2026! 

Guided by the philosophy that “growth comes not just from investing in our business, but also in our people and the communities we serve,” SRS Distribution established the Raise the Roof Foundation in 2012. This foundation’s mission can be summed up simply with the phrase “and give back.”  

With that mission in mind, they have done lifechanging work in support of people around the country, with particular focus in three areas:  

1. Supporting children and families: SRS works with a variety of organizations to support the wellbeing and future of children in our communities. For example, they partner with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of Collin County to advocate for children in foster care and The Samaritan Inn, a comprehensive program that supports families experiencing houselessness. 
2. Serving our veterans: Similarly, SRS partners with organizations that connect our country’s heroes with resources and support. Some of these include the George W. Bush Institute, Luke's Wings, One Tribe Foundation and Project Evergreen - GreenCare for Troops. 
3. Rebuilding and restoring communities: As for their third area of focus, providing disaster relief, they work primarily with three organizations, Minuteman Disaster Response, Disaster Assistance Relief and Volunteer and Habitat for Humanity Disaster Relief. 

And all of this work is made possible through their charity fundraisers and events, such as their annual concert at the International Roof Expo (IRE)! This year’s charity concert will feature Parker McCollum headlining with special guests Chris Janson and Priscilla Block.  

Parker is a singer/songwriter from Texas. His authentic sound has garnered him media attention with two ACM wins and CMA nominations three years in a row. As for Chris, he is an accomplished songwriter, singer and producer who has won an ACM award, the title of iHeart Radio Country Song of the Year and numerous nominations from CMA. And Priscilla’s raw, unapologetic and unfiltered sound has gathered a devoted fanbase and brought her songs into the top 20 for the Billboard country charts.  

This concert, happening on January 21, 2026, with doors opening at 6:00 p.m., is a great opportunity to have some fun with your peers at the biggest roofing show of the year and support a positive, lasting impact.  

If you want a sneak peek of the unforgettable performances to come, stop by the SRS booth at IRE (Booth #3201) to listen to their exclusive playlist! 

Make sure you register for IRE if you haven’t already!

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how this industry organization takes connecting and serving the community to another level.  

Recently, The Coffee Shops™ had the chance to host Mikell Bollinger, vice president of community engagement at SRS Distribution and the executive director of their charitable arm, SRS Raise the Roof Foundation, to discuss his involvement with Raise the Roof. The foundation is a charitable organization that, while affiliated with SRS Distribution, is a separate legal entity.  

Raise the Roof was founded by Dan Tinker (the CEO and president of SRS Distribution), John Davis (a retired chief legal officer at SRS), Gary Swan (the retired chief financial officer) and Ron Ross (now retired founder of SRS) after the four of them saw a common goal they wanted to achieve, but through a formal channel.  Mikell shared, “When SRS was first established as a company, it was already involved in community support and charity. And so, in 2012, when the four of them decided to get together and create Raise the Roof, it really just formalized how we handled our charitable giving and activities.” 

Overall, SRS Raise the Roof’s mission statement establishes three main areas of focus: 

1 - Military support 

Veterans and their families are a topic that is close to the heart for many employees of SRS Distribution. Mikell’s own father served in both the Navy and the Army, similarly to Raise the Roof founders, Dan and Ron, whose fathers served. Mikell shared, “It’s a topic that’s really important to us, throughout SRS, we have a lot of employees who are either active guard or reserve members and or were members of the military and now have veteran status that we've recruited as key employees throughout the company. So that's a very important mission area for us.” 

2 - Disaster relief 

As a company that distributes roofing and building materials, SRS is deeply familiar with the damage that can be caused by natural disasters. In response, they have made disaster relief one of the pillars of their Raise the Roof mission. Mikell emphasized, “We just want to give back to the communities that are impacted by catastrophic natural disasters.” 

3 – Staying local 

And their third pillar is really focused on connecting with communities local to SRS branches. This tends to focus on helping children and families in crisis. As Mikell put it, “We address issues like food insecurity, homelessness, trauma and abuse for children and families. We also work with service dogs to help individuals with disabilities, both children and adults, and through our Heritage space we connect people in need with things like lawn care and swimming lessons.” 

Learn more about the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation in their Coffee Shops directory or at www.srsraisetherooffoundation.org. 

By Jenny Yu.  

This two-day golf tournament raised nearly $2 million for charitable causes! 

On September 15 and 16, 2025, SRS Distribution’s charitable organization, SRS Raise the Roof Foundation, held its 12th annual Fall Charity Golf Classic at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. The funds raised from this event support the foundation’s three pillars: veteran support, disaster relief and local community needs. With around 350 golfers, guests and SRS event staff in attendance, this year’s golf tournament raised over $1.88 million. 

“The event is a wonderful opportunity to have our suppliers, customers and leaders from all three of our SRS divisions and some of our key departments all come together,” Mikell Bollinger, vice president of community engagement for SRS Distribution and executive director of SRS Raise the Roof Foundation, explained. “They can socialize, network, relax and play golf — all for a common cause and shared commitment to raise money, have fun and give back to support our mission areas and partner in service to the communities where we all live and work. It's really a magical, special time.” 

Part of what made this year’s event so magical was the presence of a few special guests. In attendance were US Olympian gold medalists Michael Phelps and Rowdy Gaines. At the kickoff reception, an evening of networking and entertainment, Michael offered to auction a particularly rare item.  

“Michael was gracious enough to let us auction him off to play with a sponsored twosome on Tuesday in the tournament,” Mikell said. “That was a real highlight and unexpected surprise for everybody. We raised $50,000 to auction him off to play with a couple of our sponsor partners. That was fantastic.” 

On a more serious note, another reason why this tournament was so special was the inclusion of a memorial honoring a key member of the SRS leadership team, Chad Gibson, who passed away unexpectedly in late August of this year. Chad served as senior director of strategic partnerships for SRS’s building products division. 

“Chad had been with us for quite a long time. He was a wonderful guy. Everybody loved him — all of us at SRS and the strategic partners he worked with on the supplier side,” Mikell shared. “On Monday at the reception, we had a special tribute to him. We had an empty golf cart with a memorial image. So many there knew and loved Chad so much.” 

With so many important people and causes to honor and celebrate, it’s clear that the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation’s 12th annual Fall Charity Golf Classic was not only a roaring success; it was a testament to the power of their community, generosity and a purpose-driven mission. 

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation is working with 9/11 Day to transform September 11 into the nation’s largest day of service. 

Recently, Heidi J. Ellsworth sat down with Mikell Bollinger, VP of community engagement for SRS Raise the Roof Foundation, for a Roofing Road Trips® episode all about giving back to our communities. In particular, the duo discussed the SRS partnership with the nonprofit 9/11 Day that is working to honor the lives lost on 9/11 by creating a day of service. The partnership between the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation and 9/11 Day goes back to July 2023. Mikell explained, “A couple of years ago, Eric Payne, who happens to be the brother of the co-founder of 9/11 Day nonprofit David Payne and was their VP of partnerships at the time, reached out to Dan Tinker, the SRS CEO and president.”  

Eric shared the story of the 9/11 Day nonprofit, which was founded by David and Jay Winnick with the goal of honoring the lives lost on 9/11 (which includes Jay’s younger brother Glenn, a volunteer firefighter) by organizing a day of service on September 11 each year. As Mikell puts it, “Really, the mission is to do something good, to turn something tragic into something beautiful, into a day of service, and bring back that feeling of unity and commitment, putting aside differences and everybody working together for the greater good.” 

So, when Dan and the SRS team got the call from Eric about participating in one of their 9/11 Days of service, it was an immediate yes. Mikell elaborated, “We took a look at it from a board standpoint after we learned more about the organization, and just decided this was an incredible opportunity for us, not just in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to serve, but throughout the country. And so we made a commitment to try to have volunteers in every one of those cities in 2023, and that's how we got started with them.” 

Now, two years later, 9/11 Day is the biggest day of service in America with more than 30 million people participating. Mikell shared a bit about the experience volunteering at one of these events, saying, “Regardless of where your venue is, this year in the Dallas-Fort Worth area it’ll be the Globe Life Field, you check in and then there’s a commemoration for the anniversary of 9/11. So, usually there’s a short video about September 11, a moment of silence and sometimes there’s a speaker, someone in the local community that has a personal link to the day. And then you get to work.” That work is often packing up meals that will be sent around the community to those in need. Mikell described, “Everyone starts out at workstations and then table captains bring the ingredients to you and you start off '’feeding the funnel,’ as they call it. So, you take the base product, put it into a bag that then gets passed to your next station member that adds more ingredients, it goes on down the line... And as you’re packing, there’s music and pauses when you hit certain milestones of meals packed, it’s a lot of fun and it’s really just powerful to see everybody working together for a common goal of alleviating hunger in their community.” 

Listen to the full episode to learn more about the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation and the 9/11 day of service.

By Anna Lockhart.

Here’s what’s been trending on RoofersCoffeeShop® (RCS) this past January. 

Kicking off the 2025 new year, our readers checked out a wide variety of articles and media offerings. An article that seemed to catch our readers’ attention detailed the noticeable trend of industry leaders opting for innovative coating finishes for metal sidewalls in their modern architectural projects. In a compelling discussion on an episode of CoatingsCast™, Amanda Paterline of AkzoNobel provided the inside scoop on the latest coatings trend – wrinkled-textured coatings being utilized on sidewalls to provide a cost effective yet aesthetically appealing appearance.  

One of our most popular articles showcased tales of encouragement where the good Samaritans across the country gave back to their communities through charitable works, specifically donating home and roof repairs. Coffee Shop writer, Emma Peterson, highlights five inspiring stories from contractors and recipients across the country, from a homeowner in Iowa receiving help rebuilding after a devastating tornado, to a veteran in North Dakota receiving a much-needed new roof through the Roofs for Veterans project, the article reminds us of the importance of community and compassion for our neighbors.  

The most read article this month highlighted the highly anticipated Super Bowl LIX, where the Kansas City Chiefs will once again face the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year, SRS Distribution invites those planning to attend the event in the Big Easy to join them for a tailgate celebration! No matter which team you’re rooting for, there’s a place for you at this party!  

Here are the top articles for the month of January.  

Five honorable mentions:  

10 - Top 5 ways to prepare your roofing business for the busy season 

9 - Textured coatings revolutionize metal sidewalls  

8 - 5 heartwarming stories from roofs around the country 

7 - 5 ways an advisor can help you get the most out of a business sale 

6 - Your sales adventure awaits: Join Ski Chalet 2025! 

The top five articles of the month: 

5 – Protecting those who protect our country 

4 – OSHA Education Center and the University of South Florida unveil enhanced OSHA construction safety training 

3 – Prusak Roofing, Inc. Joins the Roofing Alliance as a new Governor Member 

2 – Donate to One Family, One Fight for Wildfire Relief 

1 – Kick off Super Bowl Sunday with the ultimate tailgate 

By Heidi J. Ellsworth.

SRS Raise the Roof Foundation raising and matching donations for California wildfire relief.

As the new year begins, Southern California faces a devastating crisis. Wildfires have ravaged the Los Angeles area, destroying thousands of homes and entire neighborhoods. The toll on residents and first responders has been overwhelming, leaving countless families displaced and communities in dire need of support.

In response, SRS Raise the Roof Foundation and Heritage Cares have launched the One Family, One Fight for Wildfire Relief campaign. This initiative aims to provide critical resources for disaster relief and recovery to those affected by the wildfires. Between now and March 1, 2025, every donation made will be matched, doubling its impact to support individuals, families and first responders in the region.

"We are heartbroken by the devastation caused by the California wildfires," said representatives from SRS. "Our Raise the Roof Foundation is committed to standing with these communities to help them rebuild and recover."

Donations raised through the campaign will go directly to trusted nonprofit partners in Southern California, ensuring that aid reaches those who need it most. From providing immediate relief supplies to long-term recovery efforts, your contribution can make a tangible difference in restoring hope and rebuilding lives.

At The Coffee Shops, we are committed to spreading the word about this cause and any others that come from the roofing, metal and coating industries. Visit our forum today for a free classified promo code to help contractors looking for help, materials or support.

Join the fight today by donating and spreading the word about the campaign. Together, we can provide relief, support and a path toward recovery for those impacted by this catastrophic disaster.

Let’s come together as one family to rebuild homes, lives and communities. Your generosity can bring light to these darkest times. Make your impact today by donating and helping spread the word. Together, we can help rebuild lives and provide hope.

Donate today.

By Emma Peterson. 

Learn how the roofing community comes together to support veterans and families across the nation through the Raise the Roof Foundation. 

During the 2024 International Roofing Expo in Las Vegas, SRS Distribution hosted an unforgettable night at the House of Blues  featuring musical guests Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dierks Bentley and Tenille Townes! It was an amazing night of entertainment, fun and fundraising for the Raise the Roof Foundation.  

Raise the Roof Foundation is a nonprofit organization run by the management team at SRS. As one the largest roofing distributors in the U.S., SRS wanted to find a way to share their success and knowledge of the industry to help others thrive. Founded in 2012, the foundation’s entire mission is to give back.  

Giving back for the foundation looks like creating connections through generous donors in the industry to the SRS team’s unique skills and resource to aid three primary groups, veterans, local communities and areas stricken by disaster. On that night at IRE, the roofing industry truly came together and raised over $279,000 for the foundation! 

Where the money goes 

In order to help military service members, veterans and their families across the country, the foundation partners and donates to a variety of different charities and initiatives: 

• The George W. Bush Center Institute’s Military Service Initiative: By uniting communities and organizations, this initiative supports the well-being of post-9/11 veterans and military families. This is done through policy development, introduction of new programs and government recognition. 
• Luke’s Wings: This organization reunites injured veterans with their families by providing free of charge transportation and lodging to and from America’s major military hospitals.  
• One Tribe Foundation: Formerly known as 22Kill, this organization raises awareness of mental illness in veterans and combats suicide by educating and sharing both traditional and non-traditional therapies.  

• Habitat for Humanity: This organization is a network with locations in communities all over the country. They aid families in need of affordable housing and their Veterans Build program specifically focuses on renovating and locating homes for veterans and their families. 
• Canine Companions for Independence: By raising and training service dogs, this organization enhances the lives of people with disabilities by offering a route towards greater independence and confidence. They maintain a Veterans Initiative that trains dogs to work specifically with those suffering from PTSD. 

The foundation also wants to ensure a strong future for our community, and they believe that it begins with families and children. To support children and families, especially in times of crisis, they support a variety of organizations:  

• Court Appointed Special Advocates of Collin County: This organization promotes and protects foster children who were relocated due to abuse or neglect by finding them permanent, safe and loving homes. 
• The Samaritan Inn: By teaching life skills to unhoused individuals and families experiencing, this comprehensive program helps people regain dignity and independence. 
• Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County: This is a free of charge program that provides critical services for children who have suffered from abuse and neglect. They take on a multidisciplinary approach of music and art therapy, forensic interviewing, family advocacy and support services. 

The foundation is also dedicated to helping disaster victims rebuild and restore. They mainly do their work towards this goal by supporting the Minuteman Disaster Response. This program helps save lives by providing immediate assistance after a disaster. They do this by supporting first responders and victims with aid teams, emergency medical operations, disaster management and emergency communication systems.  

Want to become a part of the community support the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation today. Donate today!