Discounters rally to support community service activities

Discounters Rally to Support Community Service Activities

Target Stores edged out several of the most progressive retailers in the nation to win the 1989 DISC (Discounters In Service to the Community) award.

Through their DISC award entries, Target and the other award finalists showed they believe they have a responsibility to support the non-profit organizations and service agencies in the communities they serve. Many go even further, like Target's Kids for Saving Earth program (see story, page 73), and feel they must respond to the important social issues which effect their customers and employees.

The following is a run-down of some of the major community service activities of the DISC award finalists.

K mart Corp.:

Charitable Acts Focus

On Children's Programs

"From K mart, community service has always had a special meaning," said Joseph Antonini, chairman, president and ceo. "A meaning that goes beyond the traditional idea of keeping customers satisfied. Accordingly, we define success not only in terms of how well we do as a company but how much, as corporate citizens, we give back to the communities we serve."

K mart focuses its giving on four areas of service: arts and culture; health and welfare; education; and volunteerism. Both on a national and local level, K mart gives priority to those programs involving children and families.

Each of the more than 2,200 K mart stores nationwide has a "Good News Committee." These committees are organized by employee volunteers and they are actively involved in out reach programs throughout the year to help their local communities.

In addition to local out reach programs of the Good News Committees, K mart has established and funds national programs in which its stores participate. These include: * Easter Food Baskets: Over 2,100 K mart Good News Committees prepared 10 food baskets for local needy families selected by local civic organizations. Baskets contain a ham, potatoes, vegetables and bread to provide the families with an Easter meal. * March of Dimes WalkAmerica: The stores organize their associates and families to walk in the annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica event. This event is March of Dimes' largest fundraiser, and K mart for the past three years has placed No. 1 for corporate teams raising nearly $1 million each year. * Thanksgiving Food Baskets: All the main ingredients of a traditional Thanksgiving meal are distributed to needy families across America. Each K mart store provided 20 families with a food basket. * Children's Shopping Spree: K mart stores opened their doors early on Dec. 9, 1989, to bring Christmas cheer to more than 42,000 underprivileged children. Locally, each K mart store sponsored 20 needy children (selected by civic organizations) to pick out $20 worth of merchandise. In addition, the children were treated to breakfast and a giftwrapped present from Santa. * Children's Tree: Approximately 1,100 K mart stores participated in this optional program in 1989. The stores provided a Christmas Children's Tree trimmed with colorful paper tags. Each tag gave information on an underprivileged child, such as their first name, sex, clothing sizes and age. Shoppers interested in making a needy child's Christmas brighter could select a tag from the Children's Tree. The children's names were registered at the K mart store, but gifts could be purchased at any location. Presents for the children were returned with the original tag and gift wrapped to the K mart store where it was registered. The K mart Good News Committee ensured that each child's gift was ready to open on Christmas day.

The Good News Committee programs were established in 1985. The holiday Good News programs have been recognized by the President's Citation Program for Private Sector Initiatives. In 1987, K mart received a presidential award from President Reagan. This year, a special Good News Excellence in Community Service award program was launched to recognize outstanding Good News Committees.

K mart has supported education efforts through store involvement, scholarship funds and its Matching Gift program. It has begun to address the growing national concern over the education of children in grades kindergarten through 12. Antonini joined the Business Round Table Task Force on Education and will spearhead those efforts in Michigan. In addition, K mart supports a unique program called Invent America! This encourages student creativity and higher level thinking in grades K through 8.

Through two new programs, K mart works directly with high school students. The Detroit Compact School program provides job and scholarship opportunities for students. In St. Louis, the discounter implemented the K mart Employment for Youth (KEY) program in conjunction with the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The program helps provide job experience, training and scholarships for "at-risk" high school students.

Pace Membership Club:

`Pace Pride' Includes

Community Service

Pace Membership Warehouse K mart's wholesale club division, submitted its own separate entry for the 1989 DISC award.

"We have a united goal at Pace," said president and ceo Charles E. Steinbrueck, "to give all children the opportunities they deserve for building their success, their future."

Among organizations receiving major financial support from Pace are: * Families First, an organization which provides immediate and effective intervention in the destructive cycle of child abuse and neglect by focusing on restoring and strengthening families; * Girls Club, assisting girls in their development as resourceful, knowledgeable and responsible adults; * Rocky Mountain Adoption Exchange, which connects special needs children to adoptive families; * Young Audiences Inc., an organization which brings the arts, artists and kids together in the classroom through live performances, workshops and residencies by artists.

Last year, the Denver-based wholesale club chain was awarded the Outstanding Philanthropic Corporation of the Year by seven Colorado-based service organizations. Pace was cited for "significant contributions to the care and welfare of children by encouraging support of others, by lending management expertise to non-profit boards of directors and by building the internal leadership of the organizations it chooses to support," according to Giving, the quarterly publication of Metro Denver Gives, a sponsor of the award program.

In nominating Pace for the award, Families First wrote that Steinbrueck spoke so movingly of the needs of children at its fundraiser that executives of other corporations spontaneously pledged significant additional support.

Pace also makes it a point of becoming actively involved in the organizations it supports. Company guidelines require a Pace management official to become a board member of any non-profit organization Pace makes a sizable donation to.

Pace employees also volunteer time for charitable endeavors. Those efforts in 1989 included a bowl-a-thon benefiting Junior Achievement, a holiday gifts program for SafeHouse, The Denver Children's Home and Girls Club of Denver and the "Roundball Ruckus Three-Man Basketball Tournament," benefiting the Rocky Mountain Adoption Exchange and The NET Foundation.

Service Merchandise:

Community Service Legacy

Ingrained by Founder

The belief that its success engenders a debt to the communities it serves has been interwoven into the fabric of Service Merchandise by its founder, Harry Zimmerman.

Through Zimmerman's inspiration and leadership, the associates of the Nashville-based catalog showroom chain rallied behind the Muscular Dystrophy Association soon after the company's formation in 1960. Since becoming a national corporate sponsor of MDA in 1978, Service has raised over $6 million to benefit those afflicted with neuro-muscular disease.

In 1989, Service launched "One Step Closer," a campaign to raise $1.9 million for MDA. That goal was met through associate payroll deductions of $264,443 (a 20% increase over the previous year), special events (such as bake sales, raffles, diamond digs and balloon sales) which raised $511,397 (a 22% increase), the Mary & Harry Zimmerman Memorial Dinner (a black tie gala to present the Harry Zimmerman Memorial Award to Sammy Davis Jr.), which generated over $1 million in receipts from the dinner and commemorative journal, and vendor-sponsored consumer programs which netted an additional $124,740.

Service also supports United Way campaigns in the communities it serves. Its annual campaign consists of a combination of associate contributions, matching funds and corporate contributions. To achieve 100% participation, all associates attended United Way presentations in October. The result was a 75% increase in contributions.

In education, the corporation awarded 100 non-renewable $500 Service Merchandise Scholarships to individuals who have achieved academic excellence while involved in school and community activities.

To encourage - and reward - associate participation in charitable endeavors, The "Mr. Harry" Community Service Award is presented annually to the associate who best exemplifies the virtues of "hard work, enthusiasm, humility and love for their fellow man through charitable and community service activities." The 1989 recipient, an associate from Service's Midwest City, Okla., store, was a special guest at the Mary & Harry Zimmerman Memorial Dinner, where she was presented with the award along with $2,500.

Toys "R" Us:

Touching the Lives

Of Hospitalized Children

A strong desire to give something back to the communities served by Toys "R" Us stores inspired chairman Charles Lazarus to develop the Toys "R" Us Kids Playroom Program. Working with child life experts, play therapists and hospital administrators, TRU developed a playroom for children patients in hospitals.

"Now the children have a safe place away from the stress of the hospital environment in which they can laugh, socialize and do what children do best - play," said Ellen Weiss Cooper at Einstein Hospital of Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. "Toys "R" Us worked with us and provided a beautiful playroom which we could not have budgeted for ourselves. Their innovative program is a beautiful display of their corporate commitment to children."

The donation consists of everything the hospital would need to create the ideal playroom - durable and attractive wallcoverings, carpeting with an inlay of TRU's trademark character, Geoffrey, cabinets, television, videocassette player, adult seating, color murals of Geoffrey and family, and toys. Hospital officials are allowed to make a shopping spree at TRU to buy all the supplies and toys they'll need.

In addition to all the materials, TRU also hires and supervises all the workers in the playrooms. The company's logo and presence is kept subtle.

The program was launched nationwide in 1989 with playrooms in Hackensack Medical Center Hackensack, N.J., Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, and Parkland Pediatrics in Dallas. Some three to five more hospitals are expected to join the program this year.

TRU makes a three-year commitment to the program.

ShopKo:

A Spirit of Sharing

Since 1962

ShopKo president and chief executive officer William Tyrrell summarizes the spirit behind the Green Bay, Wis., discounter's involvement in community and charitable service: "In the United States, we have numerous rights which include the right to fairly compete in the free enterprise system. At ShopKo, however, we believe that amidst these rights lie responsibilities. Those responsibilities include caring about our neighbors, enhancing the quality of life in the markets we serve, and sharing our time and resources with the less privileged.

"It is in this spirit that, because of the leadership position we assume, we utilize our resources to do worthwhile things for others. It is our company objective to be a good corporate neighbor and to help provide a beacon of to help provide a beacon of hope for the underprivileged." ShopKo supports the United Way and Muscular Dystrophy Association in its markets.

In 1989, ShopKo employees' contributions to United Way agencies, like Red Cross, Scouting, the YMCA, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, etc., rose 11.5%. Including the corporate contribution, United Way agencies received $356,765 from ShopKo last year.

ShopKo employees also sponsor the largest charity golfing outing in the U.S., which raised $132,000 for MDA last year. Held on six Green Bay area golf courses, this event included 864 golfers and 13 tennis players from 30 states. Over 100 ShopKo employees also volunteered to help on the golf courses.

During the course of the year, ShopKo's 90-plus stores held fundraisers, such as bowl-a-thons, wishing wells, etc., which added $104,127 to local MDA efforts. And, ShopKo's commercial spokeswoman, Karen McDiarmid, emcees the Labor Day MDA Telethon in northeastern Wisconsin.

ShopKo's Care Club, a group of associates who volunteer their time, is also active in community events and charities. In 1989, the Care Club provided over 2,000 families in ShopKo markets with Thanksgiving food baskets. More than 2,700 needy children chainwide were treated to a Christmas shopping spree at ShopKo stores where they could select merchandise for themselves or their families. Proceeds of over $80,000 from the sale of porcelain Christmas angel sets were donated to a charity in each ShopKo community with the Care Club in each area selecting the local family charity.

Tyrell seems to be expressing the view of all the finalists in the DISC award competition when he said, "As business leaders in this great nation of ours, it not only is a responsibility to support worthwhile charitable and family organizations in the communities we serve . . .it is a privilege."

Table : Discounters In Service To the Community

1981   Zayre
1982   Zayre
1983   Ames
1984   Target
1985   Jamesway
1986   Zayre
1987   Hills
1988   Jamesway
1989   Target

PHOTO : Toys `R' Us developed its Kids Playroom Program as a haven for hospitalized children.

COPYRIGHT 1990 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
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