Community Service Spotlight: Boyett Petroleum, Enmarket & Thorntons
NATIONAL REPORT — Giving back through community service efforts and charity donations is a positive force that keeps many retailers and suppliers of this industry moving ahead. On a regular basis, Convenience Store News highlights these philanthropic efforts in this special section.
Here are the latest company spotlights:
Boyett Petroleum
The Make Dreams Real Endowment Fund, founded by the Boyett family in 2009, hosted the 27th annual Make Dreams Real Golf Tournament, which raised approximately $166,400 for the foundation. Boyett Petroleum underwrites the entire cost of the tournament so that every dollar received goes into the endowment fund with no deductions.
The fund distributes 10 percent of its balance annually as grant funding throughout Stanislaus County, Calif. This year, grants were awarded in amounts up to $10,000 for a grant total of $166,400 to 18 programs serving the county.
The Make Dreams Real Endowment Fund aims to teach values through service learning and establish accountability and volunteerism in the community.
Circle K
Circle K raised more than $5.7 million for the United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) foundation of Central and Southern Arizona and Opportunity Village in Las Vegas through customer donations, who gave their extra change at the register to benefit families and children with disabilities.
In addition to customer donations, the Circle K Desert Klassic golf tournament helped raised a record $850,000 for UPC for a grand total of $5,704,370.25 in donations.
The convenience store retailer also partnered with UCP of Central Arizona this year to open a new UCP Downtown location, including paying the lease until May 2017. The new location allows UCP to provide community programs to children and families of low- to moderate-incomes receive services they need.
Enmarket
Savannah, Ga.-based enmarket raised $91,530 through sales of paper icons and Full-Service Friday events in support of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) 2016 Light The Night Walk.
Paper icons were sold in all 61 of enmarket’s retail stores in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina during the month of May for $1. Each purchased icon could be personalized with the donor’s name and was displayed in-store. During Full-Service Fridays, enmarket’s management team pumped gas for donations for LLS.
This is the fifth year enmarket has raised money in support of LLS’s mission. During its first campaign in 2011, enmarket raised $8,411. In subsequent years, the c-store operator raised $65,993 in 2013; $76,097 in 2014; and $90,234 in 2015. Today, the company’s contributions total $332,265.
The Spinx Co.
Spinx held its annual check presentation at the Chamber of Commerce on July 14, where Stewart Spinks, the company’s founder, presented a check totaling $115,000 from the Annual Spinx Charity Golf Tournament to five South Carolina charities.
This year’s beneficiaries included Safe Harbor, Ronald McDonald House Carolinas, Harvest Hope Food Bank, American Red Cross of the Upstate and American Red Cross of the Lowcountry.
Since its inception, proceeds from the Spinx Charity Classic have totaled nearly $1 million to local charities whose missions align with that of Spinx Corporate charitable mission: “Spinx & Kids! Mind, Body, Spirit. Growing healthy kids where we live, work and play!”
Thorntons Inc.
Louisville, Ky.-based Thorntons and Lemonade for Life hosted the first community-wide lemonade stand fundraiser across 13 Thorntons locations in Louisville. Lemonade for Life is a nonprofit that seeks to financially help families in Louisville who are burdened by medical expenses surrounded Type 1 diabetes and pediatric cancer, as well as the Kids Cancer Alliance.
Thorntons and Lemonade for Life hosted the community-wide event alongside other partners, including Coca-Cola Consolidated in Louisville, who gave customers a bottle of Dasani water with a to-go pack of Crystal lemonade mix for their donation.