Molson in the Community

We’ve been writing about Molson’s United Way campaign over the last couple weeks — we had a very successful 2008 campaign, raising over $600,000!  The Molson employees in Quebec also have tons of great stories from their Centraide campaign, so here’s an overview (en Francais!) of their events and accomplishments. Thanks to Simonne Bienvennue in Montreal for putting together this guest blog post!

Cheers, Tonia

La campagne Centraide de cette année a connu un grand succès avec une augmentation de 7,7% versus l’an dernier. Notre objectif pour la province était de 105 000 $ et nous avons amassé 117 000 $. Bravo et merci à tous les employés qui ont fait un don ainsi qu’à ceux qui ont participé aux événements.

De plus, nous offrons nos plus sincères félicitations à tous les solliciteurs et aux membres du comité pour leur implication et leur dévouement. L’équipe à Montréal était composée de 23 solliciteurs cadres et 22 solliciteurs syndiqués ainsi que de 15 employés qui formaient le Comité.

En région, Danielle Caron (Est du Québec) et Francine Parent (Centre du Québec) étaient les deux solliciteurs qui ont géré les campagnes à l’extérieur de Montréal. Merci Danielle et Francine pour votre bon travail.

Encore cette année, nous avons obtenu l’aide de deux employés retraités qui ont donné bénévolement de leur temps. Un de ces retraités, Serge Pilotte, a offert 280 heures à la campagne. Serge est une personne très influente et respectée auprès des employés autant cadres que syndiqués et il agit en tant que co-président. Le deuxième retraité est Serge Vincent qui a travaillé comme solliciteur à notre Centre de distribution sur la rue Dickson. Sincères remerciements à ces deux personnes.

Tirage du gagnant d’une paire de billets de hockey

Gagnant du 1er tirage moitie-moitie: Benoit Ste-Marie

Plusieurs activités de levée de fonds ont été organisées et ont pour la plupart remporté du succès. Nous avons eu une activité de lancement qui est un lunch Oktoberfest qui fut très apprécié des employés. Il est à noter que la nourriture pour cette activité fut offerte par le Groupe Compass et nous tenons à remercier le chef, Marc Lavigne et son équipe. Les autres activités furent : tirages moitié-moitié, encan silencieux, encan en ligne, mercredis jeans, journées de massothérapie, journée popcorn, installation de pneus, vente de billets pour le tirage de billets de hockey et une activité de team building ‘Art au travail’. Quelques activités ont été organisées secrètement par les employés dont la collecte de métaux par le Service de la Centrale thermique et le paiement pour le café au 1320. Au nom du comite, merci a tous les employes Molson et a l’an prochain. Ensemble on Centraide!

Art au Travail

More photos from Centraide

Molson and its digital partner, Hill and Knowlton, have won Gold in the Blogger Relations category at the recent 2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards for our #Brew2.0 event!

Thank you!

It’s very gratifying and humbling to be recognized for our work - especially given we had such a great time hosting the events, that it didn’t really feel like work!

We’ve learned so much from this experience and met so many great people as a result. We hope to take our learning forward in our future activities and continue to be contributing members of the online community. Our goal is to be the go-to brewer in Canada, and to do this we will continue to listen, learn, and provide relevant content and genuine value to conversations.

To learn more about #Brew2.0, read my blog posts from the Toronto and Vancouver events and our entry submission.

Again, thank you to SNCR for recognizing our efforts, to Hill and Knowlton for all your hard work, and of course to the many bloggers who joined us in Toronto and Vancouver!

Cheers.

Part of our A-team in Toronto: Will Forbes, National Chair, Judy McClelland, National Executive Coordinator, Drew Stevenson,  Ontario Chair

I’m often amazed by what people can accomplish when they work together, and this year’s United Way campaign at Molson is one of those moments of awe.  Along with many other companies across Canada, we held our internal 2008 Molson United Way campaign for three weeks in October. This was my first year being part of the campaign as a Molson employee, and I was *seriously* blown away by the efforts of everyone.

I’ve been planning to write about the campaign in detail for a few days, and I’ve now got all the results, all the pics and all the videos — so here it is:

Our 2008 United Way campaign launched October 15th where, (here at 33 Carlingview in Toronto), employees gathered together in the cafe for the kick off.  Bob Duff, a very inspiring United Way volunteer and the Manager of  St. Simon’s Shelter in Toronto took the time to share his United Way story and really helped us understand the impact that United Way can have — Thanks Bob.

A team of ambassadors were put to the test to come up with some great activities to engage and excite employees about the campaign.  Let me tell you — these guys did an AMAZING job.  We had online auctions, a 50/50 draw, casino night, a Halloween party, beer bingo, beer carts, jeans week, CN tower climb….even a hair-growing challenge.

From the internal pledges alone, Molson employees pledged $154,000 — a 10% increase over last year. From special events, over $107,000 — an increase of 77% over last year!

In addition to the internal activities, many Molson’ers volunteered their time for the United Way’s Days of Caring series (read more Days of Caring from Ferg).

Photo: Days of Caring — Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre, Toronto: Employees educated schoolchildren about the health benefits of trees in urban environments and the simple steps for proper tree care, while also helping to mulch & water trees in schools and parks.

Video: Will Forbes, Molson United Way National Chair

Simon Brockett in Calgary getting his head shaved for United Way

The beer cart boys in Toronto…sorry guys, couldn’t resist!

In total, with pledges, special events, corporate donations, and Molson’s matching gift program, Molson raised just over $610,000 for the United Way — an increase of 15% from 2007.

I had some conversations recently with friends who work in the non-profit sector who have said, yes, we are worried that people won’t be able or willing to give during these tough times, and it’s true — it will be more difficult to give, but it’s still possible.  I saw this possibility become a reality when Molson employees took the challenge, reached AND surpassed goals….while having a great time!

What do you think?  Will your giving habits change while we go through tough financial times?

Tell us about your United Way efforts….share you stories and photos — we’d love to hear from you.

Cheers,

Tonia

Molson is proud to advise that we are now on the All Top on line magazine rack. You will find Molson under the Blog Council companies as well as under BEER…imagine that !  We continue to keep telling our stories about Molson in the Community, whether that’s about our employees volunteering, charitable partnerships, not for profit associations, sponsorships or just great storie about our brands and people connecting with people in the greater community. And…we’d love to hear from you about what you’d like to hear about from Molson. Cheers !

On October 4^th Molson again teamed up with the Queen’s Business Environment Today Conference (QBET) to deliver the Charity Challenge. The case competition, like always, was a highlight of the event.

Why is it such a hit? This case competition has a cause! The student delegates are put into groups and asked to tackle a challenge facing a local charity. This year’s featured charity was the Learning Disabilities Association of Kingston.

To start the day a representative from the charity briefed the group on the numerous types of learning disabilities that cause challenges for so many. One of the most interesting pieces was a list of successful business leaders that have learning disabilities including Virgin’s Richard Branson. The students were given a specific challenge – determine new revenue streams for the Learning Disabilities Association of Kingston.

After an energetic hour of ideation the groups presented to the judges. Judging was the highlight of the day for me. Every group came forward with ideas that were creative, strategic, practical and fun. As judges, we decided to ask each group one serious and one humorous question to keep the mood light. The presentation portion was filled with compelling ideas and lots of laughs.

Though the main goal of the challenge is to generate as many ideas as possible, we did recognize two of the top groups with a John Molson bag. A donation of $1,000 will also be made to the Learning Disability Association of Kingston on behalf of all challenge participants.

This unique case competition continues to be impactful for the charity, meaningful for both the students and Molson and a lot of fun for everyone involved.

Cheers!