A Charitable Summer for Industry Groups
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 7/18/2005
Even though the traditional season of giving is still several months away, industry groups are knee-deep in charitable endeavors.
Members of the Orlando/Orange County Convention & Visitors Bureau in June raised $10,000 for two local nonprofit groups. The bureau's annual spring golf tournament generated $5,000 for the Cynthia C. & William E. Perry Pavilion at Orlando Regional Sand Lake Hospital, which provides accommodations for patients' families. An additional $5,000 was presented to A Gift for Teaching, a local group that ensures that area children have the basic tools for learning by transferring the community's surplus supplies to teachers and school children in need.
During the July 1–3 Natl. Education Assn. Annual Meeting at the Los Angeles Convention Center, more than 300 NEA members volunteered to revitalize the Franklin D. Roosevelt Middle School in Compton, Calif., as part of the group's ninth annual Outreach to Teach effort. The program provides a day of painting, cleaning, repairing and landscaping at a local school during the meeting, which rotates around the country.
Also this month, Natl. Trade Productions presented the Washington, D.C.-based group Comfort Zone Camp with a $10,000 donation on behalf of the homeland security community attendees of its shows GOVSEC, U.S. LAW and READY! The donation will send to a bereavement camp 25 children, including those who have lost a parent, sibling or caregiver to a terrorist attack, the war in Iraq or a natural disaster.
The Professional Convention Management Assn. Education Foundation in June announced five new college scholarships worth $5,000 each for PCMA student members. A total of $25,000 will be awarded each year through the five scholarships for the next three years. The tuition-based scholarships are named for former PCMA president and CEO Roy B. Evans Jr. The foundation's 2005 scholarships awarded four individual students and the University of New Orleans with the Student Chapter of the Year Award.
PCMA also announced in June a community service day called Service in Sync, to be held Nov. 2. Service in Sync is part of the group's Network for the Needy program, which promotes product donations through meetings and conventions, and is sponsored in part by GES Exposition Services.
