Molson in the Community

Ah, back at it after an Easter weekend break with family and friends. Easter sometimes is that true bridge to spring; not quite this year in Toronto, given our below zero temperatures continuing. Enough of that…

Easter is also a time of year when one (this one anyway) reflects on all the great things that we have as we celebrate with family and friends around us. After 29 years in the beer business I’ve come to realize that this industry of ours is one of deep community roots and involvement.

When I look back at my early years as a summer representative in Northern Ontario my whole focus was on community. From visiting tourist resorts along wooded gravel roads, to slo pitch and fast ball tournaments with men and women across the northwest of Ontario, to the Jeux Canada Games in Thunder Bay in 1981 and again in Sherbrooke in 2103,  to door prizes for local charitable events…it was all about supporting our community.

Beer in Canada is part of our social fabric (it likely is where you are too but I can really only speak with authority on Canada). Molson Coors has continued to play our part in supporting events, festivals, entertainment and sports related events big and small from coast to coast to coast.

The range of community action is broad and deep, large and small. From proud official beer supplier of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Vancouver, to a Red Leaf project park in Calgary, to the Mayor’s Ball for the Arts in Edmonton or support of CFL clubs across the country including the Saskatchewan Rough Riders – Calgary Stampeders – Edmonton Eskimos, or a responsible choice initiative like free New Years buses in Winnipeg, to our partnered NHL clubs Edmonton Oilers – Toronto Maple Leafs – Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens and the NHL overall in North America, to the families of our fallen military and the True Patriot Love committee, to community festivals speckled across Quebec or the Pointe-A-Caillieer museum project in Old Montreal, the Maison de Jeunes de Dieppe, the amateur hockey movement in Prince Edward Island, the Halifax Oval or scholarships at Memorial University in St. John’s, to slo-pitch and local sports or perhaps a snapshot of your favourite moment in the great provincial territories that crown this country in Molson Canadian’s “make your mark” contest.

We are also proud to support our employees and the difference that they continue to make in their communities. We match their donations through our Molson Coors Donations Fund and will “double match” when they play an executive role for charity or not for profit organization. We also afford our employees with the opportunity to share their passion with fellow employees by posting their efforts in our internal social Cheers network on yammer. We have a long roster of employees committed to various charitable causes.

So, all this said, Molson Coors folks are part of an industry that continues to play a big part in our community. It is core to our business. When people come together to celebrate or make a difference in their community they can also toast their efforts with a nice cold Molson Coors. Proudly, it all dates back to our founder John Molson who was quoted while speaking to employees saying, “we are all members of a larger community, which depends on everyone playing a part.”

So cheers to beer folks across this great land that continue to play their part in our community. It’s a big part of who we are and a big part of what we love doing in the beer business. Cheers ! @MolsonFerg

Greetings for 2013 from the Molson Coors Community Blog. @MolsonFerg here. based in Canada. I’ve been involved with this blog in one way shape or form from its start back in 2007. We tended to speak all things community in Canada and have enjoyed being engaged and involved with so many of our community partners and projects through the blog. It has also been a great platform for our employees to shout out or for us to shout out about the great work that our employees do in their communities. We migrated “location” of the blog to the Molson Coors central web site a year ago. Since then I must admit that the Canadian team has held back on some of our posts, given that they might have felt just a little to Canada centric. Given that our audience now is more global, we felt we needed to be more selective of what we posted, so as not to cause too much spam like content on the blog. We are now in the midst of talking amongst the team on how we are going to utilize the blog to continue to tell stories about community and Molson Coors efforts across our business around the world in areas of corporate responsibility and community engagement.We call this Our Beer Print. SO…we would love to hear from you on what you find interesting, appealing, informing or intriguing by way of this blog. Thanks for taking the time to post some thoughts here or back at me on Twitter or via email. Thanks for your continued interest in Molson Coors and all things beer. Cheers to a great week. @MolsonFerg

Molson M Turning Tweets into Art

Do you love the arts? If so, Molson M has a unique opportunity for those in Twitterville to BE the art with its new campaign to support Canadian Art Foundation.

Here’s how it works: Over the next four weeks, the brand is asking all twitterers over Legal Drinking Age to use the hashtag #MolsonM_Art in their tweets. Each use of the hashtag will trigger a $1 donation to the Canadian Art Foundation, and get your twitter handle painted onto a giant outdoor mural in downtown Toronto.

“The goal of this project is to celebrate artistry and mastery. Whether it’s paint to canvas, chisel to stone or pen to paper, artistry is a beautiful blend of precision and passion. Molson M is made with this level of care and it represents our mastery of brewing,” says Dave Bigioni, Senior director of Marketing at Molson Coors Canada. “With this project, art lovers, beer drinkers, passers-by – any Canadian – can play a real part in bringing art to life and showing their support for art in Canada.”

“The Canadian Art Foundation provides a destination for artists and art enthusiasts to connect and be inspired by art. The Molson M collaborative approach to art does just that,” says Ann Webb, Executive Director of the Canadian Art Foundation. “The mural will be a wonderful mix of global and Canadian artistic talent, and the generous support of Molson M will help us carry on our work to nurture more local, national and global visibility for the extraordinary artistic talent in Canada.”

Those who participate can start looking for their handles on the 40-feet-high by 100-feet-wide painted mural at the corner of King and Church streets in the next week or so.

Tweet away ! Cheers. @MolsonFerg

When Kevin Harrison and Sylvie Lapointe approached us two years ago to consider partnering on the Wheelchair Dare, it raised to my attention, the critical need for greater awareness about the battle that physically challenged persons meet, day in day out. As Molson Coors Canada focuses on charitable giving in support of “active lifestyles”, it was apparent to our team that the Wheelchair Dare for Muscular Dystrophy could raise awarness about this debilitating disease as well as how we can help those physically challenged to have greater access and ease in their day to day lives.

Our Molson Coors Wheelchair Dare team this year will take to the chairs on Monday May 16th. Our President and CEO Dave Perkins will lead the way, along with Chief Legal Officer Kelly Brown, VP of Marketing Assets Judy Davey, Chief Sales Officer Nigel Tordoff…and me to bring up the rear!

Thanks to the terrific support from my co-chair (pardon the pun) John Tory and Newstalk 1010 along with Anthony Farnell and the terrific team at Global Television we will kick off the campaign on May 16th at South of Temperance in downtown Toronto. Be sure to take in the “live remote” action of our newsmaking partners and drop by to experience some of our new innovations …Molson M and Molson Canadian 67 Sublime. We’ll make this a fun filled afternoon and a great start to the campaign to raise funds and awareness for MD Canada.

You can support the Molson Coors Wheelchair Dare team in a couple of ways. You can create your own team at your place of work. If you’d like to make a donation you can do so on the Molson Coors Canada team site. Or, if you are wondering what to do with those digital photos just sitting on that chip that never gets looked at, you might wish to create your own photobook and use the special promo code, Rich Bassett and the kind folks at Photobooks will donate proceeds to MD Canada.

Thanks to all for your support of this effort and all those things that you do in the greater community.

Cheers @MolsonFerg

Sur la photo, Michel David, instigateur et coordonnateur du projet, accompagnée de Monique Dépatie (moi!), responsable des Relations communautaires pour Molson Coors

Cette opération de cueillette de cadeaux aura permis à ACTION NOUVELLE VIE de redonner à des familles démunies et dans le besoin, 110 cadeaux, dont 33 provenaient de la fête de Noël des employés Molson Coors au Centre Bell qui s’est tenue le dimanche 5 décembre dernier. La distribution des paniers et des cadeaux se tiendra chez Action Nouvelle Vie, le mercredi 15 décembre prochain! Plusieurs bénévoles de Molson Coors seront présents pour donner un petit coup de pouce!

Félicitations à Carole Reeves et à son équipe de la rue Dickson (Ventes et Distribution) ainsi qu’à Michel David et tous les autres collègues qui, encore cette année, auront donné le sourire à des familles qui vivent des moments difficiles.

Un petit geste de chacun, qui fait une GROSSE différence pour ces familles dans le besoin … je suis très fière de toute mon équipe! Santé!

De gauche à droite: Élise Marcotte, athlète en nage synchronisée et étudiante en administration et marketing à l’Université du Québec à Montréal; Marjolaine Deslauriers, chef du Complexe d’hospitalité John-Molson, ainsi que Pierre-Luc Laliberté, canoéiste et étudiant en actuariat à l’Université du Québec à Montréal.

Le jeudi 20 mai dernier, Molson Coors accueillait, tout comme les années passées, la Fondation Sport-Études qui remettait 31 bourses sport-études à des étudiants-athlètes pour s’être distingués par l’excellence de leurs études et de leurs performances sportives en 2010.

Voici donc sur la photo les deux lauréats Molson Coors ayant chacun reçu une bourse de 2,500$ visant à les encourager à persévérer dans les études et le sport.

Santé à la Fondation Sport-Études et bravo à tous les finalistes et récipiendaires de la cuvée 2010!

At Molson Coors Canada we continue to be proud to play oure part in the Community across so many dimensions. Our focus remains on promoting active lifestyle not for profits and those Community Champions that help to make our communities a better place to live, play and work.

It’s always so re-assuring when we hear back from those with whom we work with in the community. Something as simple as a few empty beer cartons can go a long way to helping not for profit agencies in our community.

I thought I’d share this note of thanks in response to cartons provided to the Hamilton Food Share program. Thanks for the thanks Cass. Cheers !

Gentlemen:

The boxes arrived yesterday.

Thanks so very much as they will be split between
Hamilton Food Share, which includes some 14 Foodbanks
in the greater Hamilton area and Partnership West, my
organization who will have some 3,000 visits over the next
12 months.

Each visit to Partnership West means a full Molson / Coors box of
canned and dry goods with a retail value of just under $ 100.

Once again thank for your support, you are the good guys.

Regards,

Cass Quinn