For the past few years, Wallside Windows measure technician Marty Cooper has increasingly embraced his resemblance to Santa Claus. Once December strikes, he wears a red sweatshirt to work and dons a Santa hat that complements his salt-and-pepper beard — which he only shaves off each spring.
Marty Cooper is Wallside Windows’ Santa this and every holiday season.
The look is just part of Marty’s jolly St. Nick ways. He loves to leave children and homeowners feeling festive when he visits them to measure for their new replacement windows, even offering candy canes to the little ones.
“I don’t boast about what I do,” Marty says. “I just do it because I love to see the smile on children’s faces and they just absolutely go nuts when I come in the house… People even want me to say, ‘Hey kids, you’ve gotta be good.’”
Even in his personal time, Marty inspires the magic of Santa in children of all ages. He says adults sometimes ask to have their pictures taken with him and that he loves to witness the looks of awe and murmurs of “Wow” that come from kids.
“It’s all self-satisfaction stuff,” he says. “I don’t look for praise out of anybody else. It’s just stuff that makes my heart feel good. It’s fun.”
Santa resemblance or not, Marty loves to give back to the community, especially with Wallside, where he’s worked for three decades.
For the past few years, he’s joined Chief of Staff Adam Blanck and his co-workers to measure windows for Life Remodeled, a nonprofit that repairs homes and completes other renovation and beautification projects in one Detroit neighborhood each year. They have measured hundreds of windows that Wallside has donated and installed for homeowners who need them.
“I want to give back,” Marty says. “Wallside’s taken care of me for my whole life, basically.”
Marty’s career with Wallside began about 30 years ago when he made the jump from being a journeyman carpenter to an installer at the family-owned company, after seeing how much friends who worked there liked it. He immediately got a sense of how the company takes care of its employees he couldn’t afford the cube van he needed and the company provided an interest-free loan to pay for the vehicle.
“I’ve had all kinds of different offers to go here, go there and do that. There’s no way I could work for any other company than Wallside,” Marty says. “They’ve seen me through my best years and they’ve seen me through my worst.”
Besides being our local Santa Claus, Marty is an avid walleye fisherman. He lives in Northville and has been married to his wife for 36 years. They have four children and 10 grandchildren. For Marty, working at Wallside is a family affair too, as his son, son-in-law and granddaughter’s boyfriend are all installers at Wallside.
As he shares his story of being Santa and a long career with Wallside, he pauses for a moment to take some baking out of the oven.
“This time of year is kind of busy, so we don’t have a lot of family time, so when you get a chance to do something nice for the family, it’s time to do it.”
If it’s time to get your replacement vinyl windows, contact Wallside Windows today for your free estimate. Visit WallsideWindows.com/estimate or call 1-800-521-7800, and Marty Cooper might be the jolly measure technician to visit your home!
