Philanthropy & Advocacy
The Simpson Family Estates makes it a priority to care for and give back to the community. We focus on the following endeavors: early childhood education in Leelanau County, Michigan agriculture advocacy, and local economic growth through partnerships with other small businesses.
Early Childhood Education
We believe the foundation of any healthy community is built on the well-being of its families and children and that equal access to early childhood education is a crucial part of this. We proudly contribute to The Simpson Family Endowment to support the Leelanau Children’s Center to achieve this mission
The founders of Simpson Family Estates and grandparents of Sam and Taylor Simpson, John and Millie Simpson, helped create the Leelanau Children’s Center. This world-class organization serves preschoolers, ages 30 months to 5 years, with an emphasis on early relationships and experiences, and child-initiated play-based learning. To help cover tuition gaps for families who can’t afford to send their children to the Leelanau Children’s Center, John and Millie created The Simpson Family Endowment.
Today, the Simpson Family Estates portfolio of businesses sponsor fundraising events year-round, along with making large contributions to the endowment, to make sure every child in the community has the opportunity to attend a high-quality education program.
Michigan Agriculture Advocacy
It’s no secret agriculture has a critical labor shortage across the state of Michigan and nationwide. To help remediate this problem, Sam Simpson is an active member of the Northwest Michigan Farm Bureau, representing not only the best interests of his wineries, but also the dozens of local vineyard clients of Harbor Hill Fruit Farms.
Sam advocates for improvement to the H-2A guest worker program to support our H-2A vineyard workers. This program is critical to the success of our businesses and the local economy, as there is no domestic agriculture labor pool for farms to draw from. His goal is to help make the program more user friendly and affordable.
Made in Michigan,
Local Matters
We believe small businesses are the backbone of our local economy. Our wineries make it a priority to highlight local businesses in our tasting room menu, at club member events and weddings with caterers, photographers and musical entertainment.
