Walmart 2002 Annual Report Download - page 12

10
United by Compassion
Making the World a Better Place – One Community at a Time
One morning last September, Shawn
Saphore, assistant manager of Store 1591 in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, climbed onto the
roof in a rainstorm and refused to come
down until Associates and customers raised
$5,000 for the victims of the September 11
tragedy. The citizens of
Harrisburg met the challenge
so quickly that he upped the
ante to $10,000 before crawling
into a sleeping bag to brave a
soggy 36-degree night. Cold,
damp, but ecstatic, Shawn came
down the next evening after learning the
community had chipped in nearly $13,000.
Shawn’s efforts were echoed thousands
of times in Wal-Mart communities across
America and around the world in the wake
of the September 11 tragedy, as Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc., our Associates and customers
donated nearly $16 million to help the
victims and their families in a joint effort
called Together We Stand.
Unexpected? Yes. But not
uncommon. Associates of Wal-Mart
stores, SAM’S CLUBS and
distribution centers consistently
perform imaginative and thoughtful
deeds to make the world a better
place – one community at a time.
Wal-Mart’s Good.Works. community
involvement program is based on the
philosophy of operating globally and giving
back locally. We rely on our Associates to
know which organizations are most
important to their hometowns, and we
empower them to determine how
community involvement dollars will be
spent. As a result, 100 percent of our
funding initiatives are channeled directly
into local communities.
In fiscal 2002, the Company, our
Associates and our customers raised and
contributed a record $204 million to causes
like Children’s Miracle Network, United
Way, community matching grants, student
scholarships and environmental projects.
Donations were made to more than 75,000
organizations.
“Our founder, Sam Walton, believed
in servant leadership,” says President and
CEO Lee Scott. “He
taught it so passionately
and wove it so skillfully
into our culture that our
Associates are naturally
committed to community
service with compassion
and integrity. Our emphasis is in four areas:
children, communities, education and the
environment. It’s here we believe we
can make the greatest impact.”
That impact became even greater in
some key areas in fiscal 2002. For example,
Wal-Mart stores joined SAM’S CLUBS in
an existing literacy program that provides
$1,000 grants to support local literacy
education programs. This year,
our Company will donate about
$3.5 million to improve reading
skills in 3,500 communities.
Also in fiscal 2002, the Wal-Mart
Foundation developed a new program
called Safe Neighborhood Heroes, in
which every Wal-Mart store and