Best Community / Charity Effort: Runner Up
Giving It Their All
Some runners took the shoes off their feet for a branch office's charity project
By Robert Carlsen
Travel Age West, June 2, 2003
When All-Travel opened its branch in Valencia, Calif., last July it didn’t take the agency long to realize it would need to quickly become part of the area’s fabric of life.
The city just north of the San Fernando Valley was very "community oriented," said public relations spokeswoman Nicole Stinson.
Small business owners and residents supported schools and community organizations with a zeal rarely seen in larger cities.
So Stinson and colleague Karen Munroe began brainstorming how they could contribute to the community. Soon they came up with the idea of supporting the Association to Aid Victims of Domestic Violence, a local organization providing emergency shelter and services to female victims of domestic violence and their children.
But how exactly could the agency help in a unique way?
The domestic violence center operates a thrift store, the proceeds of which help pay for general operating costs of the center, so it the center continually is seeking donations.
But here is where the All- Travel women put their own spin on things. The agency could support two community organizations by sponsoring the annual Santa Clarita Marathon — and while there, collect running shoes to donate to the center.
So All-Travel staffed booths at both the Sports and Fitness Expo the night before the marathon on Nov. 2, 2002, and at the marathon itself.
In those two days, All-Travel staff collected more than 70 shoes shoes, with some runners "taking their shoes off and donating them right after the race," said Stinson.
And the community support and visibility held another benefit for the company: the agency also sold some travel. Stinson said the agency promoted two specials for Club Med and Hawaii — "active family vacations," she added.
Kathie Mathis, executive director of the center, said All-Travel did a "fabulous job for us."
Mathis said the agency continued to collect running shoes long after the marathon event was completed.
To date, the center says it has received more than 125 pairs.
In fact, residents are donating other kinds of shoes, as well, at the travel agency office and in collection boxes placed inside the local chamber of commerce building.
Stinson said the agency now is considering collecting business suits for the center’s women, so they will have something appropriate to wear when they go on employment interviews or are out seeking jobs.
All-Travel’s president, Eric Maryanov, said he plans to support the marathon again this year.
"This is a way for us to get involved in the community," he said.
Stinson also got the agency involved in America’s Walk for Diabetes in Valencia, Calif., a fund-raising event organized by the American Diabetes Association last September.
As a sponsor, Maryanov said he promised to match all funds raised by his staff members and their families when they participated in the six-mile walk.
All-Travel also had a booth at the Bridgeport Park post-walk expo — selling travel, of course.
Copyright©, Travel Age West 2003
For more information
contact Nicole Stinson, Public Relations
(310) 312-3368
