WAWA, Pa. -- For the 15th consecutive year, Wawa sponsored and supported Susan G. Komen's Race for a Cure annual Mother's Day event dedicated to ending breast cancer. In addition to serving as the race's major local food sponsor, hundreds of Wawa volunteers served Wawa food and drinks to race participants at the Wawa food and coffee tents. Its sponsorship includes a monetary grant from the Wawa Charities Fund and Wawa products, including 3,000 cups of coffee for volunteers, 50,000 donuts, muffins, pretzels, and 20,000 Wawa iced teas for race participants. For the first time, this year, Wawa, [image-nocss] Pa.-based Wawa is also the exclusive water provider providing 40,000 16-oz. bottles of Wawa water for all event participants.Wawa also recently sponsored its 21st annual Stair Climb to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF). Wawa 's annual stair climb challenges participants to climb 1,019 stairs to the top of Philadelphia 's Mellon Bank Center in an effort to support the mission of the CFF in a unique and challenging way. Dozens of Wawa associates were joined by local officials and hundreds of participants and endurance teams to climb all 53 floors.In other industry charity and community service news: Shell is contributing $500,000 to the Wyoming Wildlife& Natural Resource Trust as part of the federal Healthy Lands Initiative. The funds will support the multiple uses of natural resources across approximately 200,000 acres in southwest Wyoming by assisting private landowners to conserve wildlife habitat on their lands. Valero Energy Corp., San Antonio, recently raised nearly $1.35 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) through its Corner Store Retail Division's annual fundraising campaign, during which customers could by a Shamrock for $1 and make a donation to MDA at any of the company's 949 U.S. company-operated stores. That amount boosts the total that Valero has raised for MDA over the past 22 years to more than $11 million. Across Valero's system, the amount raised per store averaged more than $1,400. Circle K Stores' Florida & Gulf Coast Regions raised $450,000 for United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) through its annual FishStix event in April. FishStix is a golfing and fishing tournament sponsored by Circle K, with all proceeds given to UCP and many of its network of 100 affiliates across North America, Western Europe, Canada and Australia. Through the FishStix event, and an in-store coin canister program that runs year round, Circle K has contributed more than $35 million to date to UCP to help support affiliate programs and services. FasMart and ShoreStop c-stores participated in the Muscular Dystrophy Association's (MDA) annual Shamrocks Against Dystrophy program and raised a total of $105,645 for the 2008 campaign. The top-selling location in the company, located in King George, Va., sold $2,881 worth of Shamrocks. GPM Investments, Mechanicsville, Va., has partnered with MDA for more than 10 years. As part of the grand opening in April of a new store in East Berlin, Pa., Rutter's Farm Stores, based in York, Pa., presented a check for $25,000 for the borough's "Build a Park" project, which will develop a community park on 17 acres of land. Reay's Ranch Investors, Tucson, Ariz., recently presented more than $93,000 to Arizona's Children Association, raised from the employees, vendors and customers in its Minit Market, Super Stop and Gordon's IGA's stores in Southern and Central Arizona. The Radiant Charity Corp., the nonprofit organization supported by Atlanta-based Radiant Systems Inc. said that the sixth annual Sprint for Cancer raised $134,000 for the Georgia Cancer Foundation. More than 1,600 registered runners participated in the 5K and 10K road race on April 20 in Atlanta. Approximately 150 Radiant employees and numerous other volunteers and sponsors worked to host the largest Radiant Systems Sprint for Cancer road race to date. QuikTrip CEO Chet Cadieux recently received the Hero Award for increasing the Tulsa, Okla.-based retailer's United Way campaign from $4,800 in 1984 to more than $1.2 million in 2007. Paul Vercollone, vice president of Duxbury, Mass.-based VERC Enterprises, and his wife, Netta, recently were the recipients of the South Shore Community Action Council Inc. (SSCAC) Lela Ray President's Award for Community Service. The Vercollones were lauded for their support of numerous community projects, in particular the Marshfield Boys & Girls Club. Kum & Go LC CEO Kyle Krause was recently named to the Greater Des Moines Community Foundation's 2008 leadership as co-vice chair. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based retailer also announced that Kyle Krause is serving as the co-chair of Dowling Catholic's We Believe campaign to renovate and update the 35-year-old Dowling Catholic high school building in West Des Moines. Davis Oil Co., a 10-unit chain based in Battle Creek, Mich., is promoting a program that offers its customers the opportunity to donate a dollar to the Charitable Union. If they opt for that, customers will have their names placed on thank you cards and have them displayed in the store and those dollars will be given to the local nonprofit, which provides clothing, bedding and household items for children, families and individuals. Hess Corp., New York, recently announced that Red Sox home runs this baseball season will help support children with medical needs through the Jimmy Fund and the Children's Hospital Boston's Trauma Program. Hess will donate $500 for every home run hit during a New England Sports Network (NESN) televised game this season. NESN is scheduled to televise 149 Red Sox games in 2008. Hess will alternate its donations between each organization on a game-by-game basis. Chevron has joined with the Tiger Woods Foundation to develop and enhance programs, activities and events in support of the foundation. As part of this new relationship, Chevron will assume the title sponsorship of the Chevron World Challenge golf tournament, held annually at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif. San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp. will also support efforts to expand the foundation's programs that help young people prepare for successful and responsible careers. Separately, Chevron also recently announced a new employee giving and volunteer program that will provide up to $20 million annually for U.S. nonprofit organizations. The new program, Chevron Humankind, includes company matching for employee financial contributions, grants to nonprofits for volunteer time and company-sponsored volunteer opportunities. Open to U.S.-based employees and retirees, it allows employees to support nearly any nonprofit rather than restrict giving to specific categories of organizations. The MDA shamrock campaign by PS Food Mart and its parent company, Folk Oil Co., headquartered in Homer, Mich., which operates 29 PS Food Mart locations in southcentral Michigan and Toledo, Ohio, achieved record sales with a grand total of more than $42,000. The Oneida Indian Nation's 12 SavOn gas stations and c-stores in Oneida and Madison counties in New York raised $13,713 for MDA's shamrock sales in the 2008 campaign, more than a third over last year's total. The Canastota store led the fundraising effort, accounting for $3,611 of the total. Canastota cashier Josephine White sold the most of the $5 gold and $1 green shamrocks, raising $897. For this year's campaign, the stores sold only the gold shamrocks for the first week, under a "Go for the Gold" theme. During the last week of the campaign, the stores sold green bead necklaces for $1 to tie in with St. Patrick's Day celebrations. This is the sixth year the SavOn stores have participated in the shamrock sales campaign. Since 2003, the SavOn stores have raised about $62,000.
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