Spirited Costco employees raise the bar on giving back Lof t y goals
RED BOX PICTURES/DAN DELONG
story cover
26 ;e Costco Connection AUGUST 2010
By David Wight
WALK INTO A COSTCO warehouse in May and
it’s hard to miss the excitement of the annual
Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) fund drive.
CMN balloons are everywhere, as employees, such as
Demont Cornelius (pictured at right), cashier at the Seattle warehouse,
get behind the corporate campaign to support 170 children’s hospitals
in North America. Warehouses and employees come up with creative
strategies (even wearing paper balloons) to raise money and encourage
members to buy balloons that have their names printed on them. This
year’s campaign raised more than $11.5 million through the efforts of
employees and members in the United States.
But the CMN campaign is only one of the more visible opportunities for community involvement. Costco employees are helping everywhere, behind the scenes and often unsung.
In Sandy, Utah, Sylvia Dewey loads her car with bakery items for
local homeless shelters. In Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Robert Young
takes the fourth seat on a ladder truck headed to a residential fire. In
Mayfield Heights, Ohio, Crystal Densmore takes her board seat for
the local chamber of commerce meeting. In Austin, Texas, Amanda
Harris visits the local elementary school after work for a weekly
tutoring session with a struggling student.
A year ago, The Connection provided a wide-angle view of members making a difference around the globe by finding solutions to
social problems (“Changing the world,” August 2009). Now we turn the
lens to see a macro view of those around us at Costco who are working
to change lives locally.
With more than 106,000 Costco employees in the U.S., there are
thousands of examples of people fulfilling Costco’s pledge to give back
we
