A Corporate Culture Effects Change; Benefits to America's Inner City Youth Realized As Kids Across America Kamp Builds Kaleo Leadership Center with Unilever Grant

Business Wire, August 3, 2004

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. -- It wasn't the beginning of a typical Brooks Brothers-infused business trip when Tom Michaelis, Sales Vice President for Unilever, boarded a jet bound for West Palm Beach. It wasn't a sales call or an industry meeting, it was a mission to "get into the skin" of another person and allow the immersion to "open your eyes as to how others live." The result -- personal and professional growth, greater understanding for the world and the marketplace you do business in and a commitment to make a difference. All said, an eye-opening, life-changing experience. It wasn't just a directive from their boss, it was a mission rooted in Unilever's global corporate culture and ingrained in the activities mandated by its global Executive Leadership Program.

Michaelis spent three days in West Palm Beach's inner city, living in a Christian-run, renovated "crack house," helping to mentor, nurture and care for disadvantaged inner-city youth. Repetitive topics of conversation with the counselors and youth centered on a love of sports, sport heroes and a sports camp in Missouri that left a strong impression on them. The sports camp is the Kids Across America Kamp (KAA) located 50 miles southwest of Branson, Missouri.

Upon return to his family and corporate office in Chicago, Michaelis was inspired to see first-hand how the Kids Across America Kamp could have such a profound effect on America's disadvantaged inner-city kids and their respective counselors. Michaelis, himself the product of the inner-city growing up in Queens with "more concrete than trees," traveled to Missouri, met with KAA president, Gregg Bettis, and began to understand the impactful formula at the root of the KAA experience.

Kids Across America Kamp hosts almost 6,000 inner-city youth a year from more than 400 cities and 35 states. KAA's core purpose is to develop and mentor young leaders by training, mentoring and providing positive alternatives to their everyday realities by encouraging, equipping and empowering inner-city youth and their mentors through Christian sports camping. KAA delivers results. For more than 25 years, KAA has seen thousands of inner-city kids graduate from college, pursue college and careers. KAA hires more than 600 college athletes and coaches each summer to train and mentor its campers.

"Everything we do at Kids Across America is designed to build leaders among our inner-city youth and provide them with the life skills to take a stand for their future in very challenging environments," said Gregg Bettis, President, Kids Across America. "Forty-percent of our kids come back summer after summer, many go on to become counselors."

Among the many strengths Kids Across America Kamp counts among its successes is its leadership program engaging and training adult youth counselors from inner-cities across the United States known as Kaleos, a Greek word that means "Called Ones." The Kaleos may be the one positive relationship an inner-city youth has with a caring adult and KAA has the ability to strengthen the Kaleos ministry through life skill, leadership and business training programs.

Personally committed to support KAA, Tom Michaelis saw and experienced first-hand the profound impact the Kaleos have on inner-city youth. Through a proposed Leadership Training Center necessitated by the growing popularity and attendance at KAA, the camp would train more Kaleos in life skills while providing even greater tools to mentor and gain community support at home.

At Michaelis' urging, KAA president Gregg Bettis prepared a grant proposal for the Unilever United States Foundation requesting foundation dollars to support its Kaleo Leadership Learning Center. A manufacturer and marketer of foods, home and personal care products, Unilever's donation would appropriately fund the kitchen and dining area designed as a training clinic for KAA Kaleos in areas of food preparation, nutrition, food procurement and culinary skills as well as to engage Unilever executives as role models rotating through camp sessions working with the Kaleos and Higher Ground youth campers on topics ranging from leadership, time management, business communications, fundraising and practical realities of interfacing with local businesses and leaders.

Unilever awarded a three-year, $250,000 grant to KAA enabling a groundbreaking of the Leadership Training Center on August 9, 2004 and providing a gateway for greater private individual and corporate support for the center.

"Unilever is very much committed to inner-city kids and KAA adds tremendous value to cities by providing necessary life skills to build future leaders," commented Michaelis. "Our corporate leadership has pushed hard globally to help our executives become leaders. Ingrained in our corporate culture is the need to give back to our consumers and communities in our greater marketplace. What a better place to focus our resources than with KAA helping America's inner-city youth."

UNILEVER BACKGROUND:

Unilever is one of the world's largest consumer products companies with annual sales of approximately $48 billion in 2003. It produces and markets a wide range of foods and home and personal care products. Unilever operates in around 100 countries around the globe and employs approximately 250,000 people. In the United States, Unilever sales were approximately $11 billion in 2003. The company employs some 15,888 people and has 59 offices and manufacturing sites in 21 states.