The Bruins: Responsible Corporate Citizens?

This evening, I attended the Bruins-Ottawa hockey game at the Garden with Social Boston Sports. The Bruins were skating circles around the other team. When we left after the second period (to be able to catch some of tonight's Democratic debate), the Bruins were winning 3 to 0.

Obviously I enjoyed the company (SBS members are high quality people), the drunk guys yelling SCORE SCORE SCORE behind us, the bubbly beers, the salty deliciousness of the hot dogs, oh yeah, and the hockey.

But almost as interesting were the pre-taped pieces on the big screens that ran during the commercial breaks and between periods. I guess I didn't know how involved the Bruins were with local charities, mainly Cradle to Crayons. Related events were featured several times over the course of the game. Besides being an outstanding team (this year), the Bruins are clearly very involved with the local community.

Between talk about elections, the war, and the economy, "corporate responsibilty" has become a hot topic. (Did you know that February 25 was Corporate Responsibility day?) It's becoming more common for the public to expect corporations to step up to the plate and help. And I certainly count myself in that group - for a capitalistic society to work well, corporations need to share the wealth. We're taking a very, very, very small piece of the wealth - but an important one nonetheless.

Certainly Boston sports teams like the Bruins, which are corporations lest we forget, are involved with their community. OYFP has been fortunate enough to receive small grants from IBM and Digitas. Our email service is courtesy of Emma's 25 Initiative, and we have a Google Grant for pay per click advertising. Diverse businesses including DeLuca's, SalsaBoston, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and the Howard Yezerski gallery have supported us. I only hope that over the coming years obtaining corporate support becomes easier.

What does your employer do to support your community? What do you wish they would do? Do you think the likely recession is going to negatively impact actions supporting "corporate responsibility?"