FIRST FIDELITY INTEGRATED BUSINESS CORE SCORES BIG IN PHILANTHROPY
The First Fidelity Integrated Business Core Program at the Price College of Business reports a high total of giving for the fall semester. According to Program Director Shelly Grunsted, The IBC students have once again far surpassed our expectations of hard work and dedication to the Norman community and to Price College. If you step back and reflect on what 78 students did in 16 short weeks, it is truly unfathomable.
More than $41,000 was donated in December to charities, including Ally's House, Middle Earth Child Development Center, Make-A-Wish Foundation and Camp Cavett. More than 2,700 hours of community service were distributed among various schools in the Norman Public School District, Second Chance Animal Sanctuary and Moore Youth and Family Services. This brings IBC's total giving amounts during the past 12 years of the program's history to more than $820,000 and 36,000 hours of community service.
This innovative program at OU allows students to form a company and gain business insight as well as learn management styles, effective leadership skills and the legal issues associated with running a business. Loan presentations, annual reports and inventory-control processes are some other operational competencies students learn through the First Fidelity Bank Integrated Business Core program.
This semester, two companies are working hard to increase this already high total. Sippin' Sooner Co. currently is selling sets of four-pint glasses and the Sooner Grilling Co. is offering OU grill sets with all profits going to local charities.
The Sippin' Sooner Co. is promoting their set of OU pint glasses with two different glass designs: the OU logo and the Sooner Schooner. The set sells for $30 and the profits will benefit Hearts for Hearing, a nonprofit organization that provides funding for hearing technology and financial assistance for audiological services for children with significant hearing loss in Oklahoma. The company also will donate hours of sweat equity to the Oklahoma Blood Institute by performing clerical work in their Norman office and assisting at various blood drives in the region. Meals on Wheels of Norman also will benefit, with Sippin' Sooner Co. members delivering lunches as a community service. If you would like to order these sets of OU pint glasses, go to www.sippinsooner.com.
The Sooner Grilling Co. is selling its high-end barbecue grill sets for $45, with the profits going to the Center for Children and Families Inc., a United Way agency. The organization helps children in Cleveland County through five support programs: divorce visitation, neighborhood centers, parents' assistance, teenage parenting and trauma-focused support. Their hours of community service also include working with Meals on Wheels on the weekends, organizing and packaging food as well as helping out with the weekend meal runs. The Sooner Grilling Co. additionally is assisting three elementary schools in the Norman Public School system, including Washington Elementary, Monroe Elementary and Jefferson Elementary. If you would like to order an OU barbeque grill set, click here.
These students have impacted so many people's lives with their sweat equity and monetary donations, Grunsted said. I believe, in return, these students have truly been taught not only classroom lessons but life lessons on being a good corporate citizen, a role model for children and, most of all, that every single person can make a difference.