PLS Team Members Cook Up Something Special at Chicago’s Ronald McDonald House

CHICAGO, IL—April 15, 2012: Team members from PLS’s Support Center headquarters recently took over the kitchen at the Ronald McDonald House in Chicago’s Lincoln Park to prepare dinner for the House’s guests.

The Ronald McDonald House (www.rmhccni.org), located near Children’s Memorial Hospital, provides a haven to keep families together while their child is receiving medical treatment far from home. Ronald McDonald Houses offer comfortable and private rooms, opportunities to bond with other families going through similar situations, and delicious meals prepared by volunteers.

PLS (www.PLShome.com) is one of America’s most successful and fastest-growing consumer financial services retailers. The PLS mission is to provide innovative and convenient financial services delivered with the respect that hard-working consumers deserve.

Cindy Caruso, Director of Training, PLS, led the team of ten volunteers, and insisted that everything be made from scratch. “We served a Mexican-themed meal of chicken-tomato-bean casserole, fresh vegetable salad and two desserts,” reported Caruso. “We had a lot of fun preparing and cooking the meal, and the guests enjoyed it a great deal. We look forward to the next time we can serve dinner for the guests here at the Ronald McDonald House.”

About PLS: People. Location. Service.

The PLS Group (www.PLShome.com), headquartered in Chicago, is comprised of more than 300 financial services centers in Alabama, Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, New York, Texas and Wisconsin, with more than 3,300 employees. The company also manages more than 45 check cashing locations in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin and Texas.

PLS has been listed among Inc. magazine’s “5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America” (www.inc.com/inc5000/list) for the past three years, and for three consecutive years has been named one of the “101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work for in Chicago” by the National Association for Business Resources (www.101bestandbrightest.com). For the past four years, PLS has been named one of Chicago’s Largest Privately Held Companies by Crain’s Chicago Business® (www.chicagobusiness.com), and was listed among Crain’s “Fast 50” (Fastest Growing Companies). Bob and Dan Wolfberg, PLS Presidents, were finalists for Ernst & Young’s 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year Award (www.ey.com). In 2011, Bob Wolfberg was recognized by Financial Service Centers of America [FiSCA (www.fisca.org)] as its Financial Service Provider of the Year. The company has also been twice honored with the Activa Award from FiSCA in recognition of its charitable efforts.

The PLS Group serves customers through its PLS Check Cashers stores, which offer check cashing, prepaid Visa® debit cards, money transfer services, money orders and bill payments; PLS Loan Store locations, which provide consumer short-term loans, auto insurance and tax-preparation services; and PLS Motor Vehicle Services facilities, which offer vehicle license and registration services.

About the Ronald McDonald House

The four Chicago-area Ronald McDonald Houses are operated by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana, whose mission is to improve the health, well-being and education of children through its three core programs: Ronald McDonald Houses; Ronald McDonald Care Mobile®, which provides essential health services to children in underserved areas in a mobile environment; and its Scholarship Program, which provides renewable scholarships to academically outstanding, community-minded and economically challenged young people. For more information, visit www.rmhccni.org


Leann Coley, Talent Acquisition Specialist, chops herbs under the watchful eye of Cindy Caruso, Director of Training.


Dave Arenson, Compliance Officer, stirs corn while Michele Catalano, Training Manager, and Manuel Barrios, Internal Auditor, prepare dessert.