Costco Connection - September 2006

WHETHER YOU ARE a fierce road warrior who drives a performance car or a speed-con-scious motorist driving a biodiesel-powered vehicle, you rely on tires to get you around. Because tires are such a vital part of safe travel, Costco has always gone to great lengths to ensure that Costco Tire Center employees are well versed in all aspects of automotive tire safety. In keeping with this commitment, Costco has recently teamed up with longtime industry leader and Costco tire supplier Michelin® to provide an even higher level of training.

According to Robert Moyer, who oversees Costco’s Tire Centers, the new certification program with Michelin means that Costco Tire Center employees—who have already received considerable training on tire sizes, types and installation—now receive between 30 and 60 hours of additional training and testing per year on tire construction, oversize-tire

JEFF ANDERSON

application, tire-pressure-monitoring systems, service guidelines and other technical aspects of tires. The extensive level of training means that all Costco Tire Center employees are certified Michelin tire technicians.

“Currently we are the only retail tire group with this level of Michelin certification,” Robert reports. This focus on training means that Costco members will be assisted by some of the most knowledgeable tire technicians in the industry, who can pinpoint exactly the kind of tire best suited to their needs and ensure that the tires are fitted to exacting specifications.

Robert concludes, “From the sales floor through the installation process, Costco’s Tire Centre employees are real experts.”

—Will Fifield

Former All-Pro tackles

scholarship breakfast

“... if you are

willing to work

hard, you can

achieve what-

ever your hopes

and dreams

may be ...”

Former football gre Alan Page now dev his free time to help students succeed.

FORMER PRO FOOTBALL star Alan Page is still making tackles, only nowadays the target is higher education, not quarterbacks.

Through the Page Education Foundation ( www.page-ed.org), which he founded in Minnesota in 1988, Page encourages youths of color to continue their education beyond high school. That’s why he’s a natural fit to be the honorary speaker for the 2006 Costco Scholarship Fund Breakfast this month.

Page will be the keynote speaker for the seventh annual Costco Scholarship Fund Breakfast on September 28 at Seattle University. The Costco Scholarship Fund provides financial assistance to underrepresented minority students who wish to attend Seattle University or the University of Washington.

Page, who retired from the National Football League in 1981, now serves as an associate justice of the Minnesota Supreme

at otes ing

Court. His foundation offers partial scholarships for college students, mentoring programs and service projects for children designed to keep them in school.

“Our foundation’s purpose is to motivate and encourage students to take the risks that I think a lot of young people perceive in going on to school,” Page tells The Connection.

The foundation has awarded scholarship

grants to 2,300 college students over the past 11 years. Grant recipients agree to a contract to return to their communities and work with kids in kindergarten through eighth grade— “sending the message that education is important, you can use education as a tool and if you are willing to work hard you can achieve whatever your hopes and dreams may be for the future,” says Page.

Page played professional football for nearly 15 years with the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears. In 1988 he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. He was named All-Pro Defensive Tackle nine times, and in 1971 was named the National Football League’s Most Valuable Player.

CINDY HOFFMANN

Asked what is more difficult, fighting off a block to get to the running back or running his own foundation, Page laughs.

“Let me put it to you this way. This year [the Page Education Foundation] has 590 scholars—about 250 are just graduating from high school. Think about trying to organize that many teenagers,” Page says. “Now what do you think is most difficult?”