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Here's what you will find: 7,000 highly committed competitors who know winning isn't everything. Ribbons or medals for everyone. Volunteers who dole out hugs at the finish line. And a four-page long list of companies, most in North Carolina, who donated from a few thousand to a few million dollars to pay for an event that will bring them relatively little global exposure. Instead, what North Carolina corporate supporters have found is that getting behind the Games has done wonders for their reputations as good corporate citizens and helped boost employee morale. The local organizing committee for the Games had barely set up shop three years ago when North Carolina businesses starting coming forward to contribute. “I wasn't totally surprised, but I was pleasantly surprised,” says Paul Velaski (pictured at right), chief marketing officer for the Games, of the business community's enthusiasm. “It makes life a lot easier when they come to you.” Another benefit to having such widespread corporate support is that many companies also are encouraging their employees to volunteer for the Games. Organizers have been seeking a staggering 35,000 people to help run what has historically been a grass-roots event, working as everything from translator to chauffeur to traffic control and even cheering competitors. It's taking $35.5 million to stage the Games — the largest sporting event in the world this year — and 65 percent of that is coming from corporate donations. The balance has been provided by government and foundation grants and individual contributions. Although the payback isn't on as grand a scale as it would be for the Olympics, high-level sponsors will reap some bottom-line benefits through prominent signage at venues, opportunities to display booths, press announcements and special receptions and posters. Sponsors at the $500,000 level or above also enjoy category exclusivity. It may be an international event, but it has a decidedly North Carolina flavor: 80 percent of the corporate sponsors are either headquartered in the state or have large facilities here. That's the case with Glaxo Wellcome Inc., headquartered in Research Triangle Park. When Bill Shore attended the kickoff ceremonies for the Games shortly after the Triangle won the bid to host them, he knew the pharmaceutical company and its 4,500 Triangle employees would rally around the cause. The company is one of eight sponsors at the $1 million level, the second-highest sponsorship category. “It (sponsoring the Games) fits right in, just like another piece of the puzzle,” says Shore, director of community relations. “We take a lot of pride in the reputation our company has, whether it's supporting quality child care or the other causes we're involved in. Our roots go very deep with Special Olympics. We've been involved at the state level for many years.” To promote the company's involvement and generate interest among potential volunteers, last June Glaxo staged an event that employees were still talking about months later. The key to its success, recalls Shore, was the many Special Olympic athletes who were involved. Members of the N.C. Special Olympics volleyball team played a game against a squad of Glaxo executives. A torch lighting ceremony was held in which a Glaxo staff member whose late child was once a Special Olympics athlete was asked to light the torch before a crowd of 2,000 people. And when volunteer applications were passed around later, it was Special Olympics athletes who handed them out. Employees were hooked. “We actually pledged one year ago that we would try to recruit 1,000 volunteers,” notes Shore, “and as of now we have 1,068 volunteers, out of 4,500 employees in the Triangle. One of the interesting things we've heard is that this is having a positive impact on employee morale. One of the impacts is that employees will feel better about the company.” The positive effects of working together for a common cause have also come into play at other million-dollar sponsors such as SAS Institute, General Parts/Carquest Auto Parts and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, as well as Sara Lee Corp.'s Hanes division, which is one of two $2 million sponsors from the Tar Heel state. For the 9,000 employees of General Parts' Carquest wholesale stores across the U.S. and Canada, getting involved in the Games meant actually raising $800,000 of the company's $1 million pledge on their own and through special store promotions. They rose to the challenge by selling collectible toy trucks and racing star videos to customers and, after hours, holding bake sales, flea markets and car washes. “We saw it as a good opportunity to build teamwork among our employees and installers, and to enhance our image in the community,” says Temple Sloan, chairman and founder of the 37-year-old, Raleigh-based company. About 300 employees from all over the country will be volunteering during the Games' 10-day run. Lowe's, which is donating both cash and in-kind services such as construction materials to help build and equip the venues, also is getting its employees involved. Store associates have been wearing promotional World Summer Games buttons on their aprons for months now and placing customers' purchases in colorful Special Olympic-themed bags. Key employees were involved in several activities that took advantage of the company's longstanding sports affiliations to build support for the Games. Those included a gala at the Charlotte Hornets training facility last year that raised $100,000 for the Games and a NASCAR race that included the Lowe's No. 31 car with the Games' 1-800 number painted on the back. To help encourage friendly competition among its staff and spread the word about the games, Lowe's sponsored an essay contest for prospective volunteers. Employees were invited to submit a one-page essay on the theme “I can make a difference,” according to Gary Jordan, the company's Special Olympics manager. The 300 contest winners will spend a week in Raleigh providing all the volunteer support at the power-lifting venue. Lowe's also is donating two of its corporate jets to the Cessna Citation Airlift effort, which partners corporate aircraft with Special Olympics teams needing transportation, says Gary Jordan, Lowe's Special Olympics manager. Another company donating both cash and in-kind services at the million-dollar level is SAS Institute in Cary. For one thing, executives felt sponsoring the Games was in keeping with their philanthropic mission, notes Kat Hardy of the public affairs office. “We're interested in supporting this event because it's such a huge event for this community and we wanted to be a part of making it happen,” she says. “Plus it's a really wonderful organization providing a wonderful opportunity for athletes.” Hardy and other Games organizers at the company knew that employee participation would be high because of the staff's history of giving generously of their time and resources, but they were overwhelmed by the response to a cafeteria kick-off campaign. SAS' goal of 600 volunteers was surpassed, and to date 730 employees — roughly a quarter of its Triangle workforce and 10 percent of its worldwide staff — have signed up. Like all companies interviewed for this article, SAS is providing its Games volunteers with paid time off to fulfill their obligations. Spurred by volunteer and Special Olympics supporter Gov. Jim Hunt, the State of North Carolina also is giving paid time off for the thousands of state government workers who will make up the volunteer force. Whether they represent corporations or not, most volunteers will be clad in T-shirts supplied by the Hanes division of Winston-Salem based Sara Lee. The company, a $2 million sponsor, also is providing clothing for Games staff and officials; contestants in the final leg of the Law Enforcement Torch will run in Hanes garb. As another facet of its sponsorship, it is providing uniforms for the entire U.S. Special Olympics team that will bear the company's Champion brand. “When we speak to consumers, we try to speak as a brand,” notes Bob Scott, director of marketing for Hanes and Hanes Her Way. Like other major North Carolina sponsors, Hanes had no trouble recruiting volunteers to help run the Games. The company will be sending about 250 to man track and field events at N.C. State. Many Hanes volunteers are fluent in foreign language skills developed as a result of traveling a lot on the job, making them an especially valued asset at an event that will be attended by people from 150 countries. Other Hanes volunteers will be assisting with medaling ceremonies, Scott says. “The closer to the athletes they could be, the more interested they were,” he says. “It's a cause everyone supports because whether you have a kid with mental retardation or not, everyone knows it could happen to them.” Velaski has high hopes the companies that are sponsoring these Games have had such a good experience that they will continue their support. “At the end of the day, they have to feel good about it from a business and philanthropic standpoint,” he says. “They see it as a way for their employees to work together for a segment of the population that has never been given its just due. The companies get 10 times more out of it than they put into it. Our athletes show us what we can do if we just put our minds to it.” COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL. This article first appeared in the June 1999 issue of North Carolina Magazine. |
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Here's
what you won't find at the Special Olympics World Summer Games in
the Triangle later this month: No million-dollar sneaker deals.
No heartthrob athletes gracing the cover of the top
newsmagazines. No drug-testing melodramas. No prima-donna runners
or half-starved gymnasts who train all their lives for one minute
of glory. 