Making a Difference

If you’re following today’s posts, you may begin to see a theme.

As Jason mentioned, today is the second annual “#GivingTuesday” a movement to create a national day of giving to kick off the giving season on the Tuesday following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The first GivingTuesday brought in over $10 million in online donations in 2012.

We know that many of our venues participate in charitable programs, so we reached out to IAVM Headquarters neighbor, Paul Turner, CFE, director of event operations & security for AT&T Stadium, to see what they do to make a difference for their community, and Paul shared that the stadium has several programs in place including:

• Donating unclaimed lost-and-found items to charitable organizations (eyeglasses get reused and go to people who are in need)
• Holding food and toy drives that our hundreds of part-time staff give to regularly
• Taking part in our corporate community service projects including participating with the Dallas Cowboys to work with The Salvation Army on many efforts, including the kick-off of the Red Kettle Campaign.

“As an industry, I think we recognize the unique role that we (venues) play in society and in our communities and that we look for ways to be of service beyond our guests, event clients, performers and athletes who visit and use our facilities,” Turner said.

We know many of our venue members give back. Share what you do to make a difference in your community!

(photo credit: by Tim Green aka atoach)