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By Leonard Novarro
Special to ASIA
James G. Vella didn’t fly 2,339 miles from Dearborn, Michigan, to wake up to gray skies in San Diego. But there he was, beneath a canopy at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, waiting for local beneficiaries of the Ford Motor Co.’s beneficence to arrive.
And the skies to open up to at least a glint or two of sunlight.
About 45 minutes later, as he took to the podium, the sun was out.
Call it an omen. But call Vella’s visit to Southern California good business, because that’s the way the major players, like Microsoft and QUALCOMM, engage in corporate affairs these days.
Vella, president of the Ford Motor Company Fund and Community Services, was in town to meet with several non-profit organizations, many of whom will be benefiting from an $8 million nationwide philanthropic campaign, $1 million of it earmarked for San Diego.
Elsewhere in Southern California, the foundation has teamed up with the Los Angeles-based James Irvine Foundation to benefit underprivileged youth in California.
Beforehand, meeting with ASIA publishers Rosalynn Carmen and Leonard Novarro, Vella explained Ford’s goal – to link products and services “directly to the community.”
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Some of the San Diego grants will be for programs that address the environment, which is one of the reasons the museum served as the venue for the announcement. The museum has launched “Green Skills for Life,” a full day event Saturday, Oct. 18, in which it and other museums in Balboa Park will demonstrate and promote hands-on activities for parents and children geared to improving the environment.
Ford is also supporting safe driving programs in the community through its “Driving Skills for Life” program, designed to teach teenagers how to avoid serious accidents, the No. 1 cause of teen fatalities in the United States.
Ford also supports programs teaching youngsters critical thinking skills, particularly in building what it calls “a sustainable society” in the 21st century and cultural programs that advance community heritage, or what Vella calls “telling the American story.”
The key element of the San Diego initiative, according to Vella, is the involvement of local Ford dealers, who will be screen grant applications.
All of this “helps to build brand,” Vella said. “Giving back to the community where we work and live and do business is a good thing to do.”
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In these trying economic times, most would agree, it makes good sense.
Last year, when brush fires devastated Northern San Diego County, Ford donated 10 vehicles valued at more than $500,000 to the San Diego Fire Department and an additional $100,000 to the local American Red Cross to help disaster relief.
Some of the beneficiaries this time around include the American Lung Association, Healthy Air Walk and beach cleanup efforts by San Diego Coastkeeper.
San Diego is one of seven cities to benefit from the initiative called Operation Goodwill. The others are Phoenix, San Antonio, Chicago, Detroit, Miami and Nashville. Vella said that Los Angeles could be targeted, as well, in the future.
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