Civic duty: good 'personal' strategy

Drug Store News, Dec 11, 1989 by Bruce Buckley

Civic duty: good `personal' strategy

"One company can't reform all of the problems of a troubled inner-city neighborhood -- but we can help."

With this statement, summing up the driving force behind Walgreens' new "One on One" tutoring program for Chicago inner-city grade school children, Charles R. Walgreen III, chairman and ceo, encapsulated the spirit bringing more and more businesses into civic areas once dominated by government programs.

Walgreens' new program combines a few hours a week of tutoring with basketball for an unbeatable work and play formula designed to pick up grades and teach teamwork, paving the way for success in high school and, eventually, college.

That may sound like a big leap for kids on Chicago's Near West Side who will be the first to benefit from Walgreens' new program. But the Midtown Educational Foundation, recipient of Walgreens' pledge of $190,000 to support the program for the next four years, has scored points since 1965 with just such a program, aimed at seventh- and eighth-grade boys. In 1985 an affiliated program for girls was launched. More than 60 percent of kids in the program go on to college.

Walgreens' new program aims to pick up youngsters at an earlier, more impressionable age -- the fourth- to sixth-grade levels. It starts this fall with 30 boys, and will later be expanded to girls. Eventually 100 children a year will be helped by volunteer tutors trained in Walgreens' program.

As Walgreens' chief executive describes it: "We chose our company's hometown, Chicago, and a program that helps kids on a personal level.... Our program will reach students at an earlier age, build their confidence and open some options to them."

Walgreen hits the nail on the head when he points out the need for business to get involved in such programs: "This isn't just civic duty, it's concern for future employees.... With a national high school dropout rate nearing 30 percent, our next generation is at risk."

Walgreens is not, of course, the only drug chain or independent pharmacy giving its resources to worthwhile endeavors. The spirit of volunteerism that has burned bright in the '80s has moved many companies to greater involvement in their communities. We'll be portraying some of these outstanding efforts in future issues.

I wanted to focus on Walgreens in this column because, first, it is the premier chain in the industry --one of the oldest and certainly the most successful. Second, I wanted to mention a project we're undertaking. In March, we will publish an issue entirely devoted to Walgreens and the factors that have made it such a success. It will be the first full-issue study on a chain that Drug Store News has published in more than a decade, we believe it will be a notable publishing event.

Walgreens' contribution to Chicago's children captures as much as anything the kind of creative imagination that has made the company the industry leader. It combines civic good with a strategic vision of how the welfare of young children in Chicago's inner-city neighborhoods is linked to Walgreens' future. The children are, after all the employees and customers of tomorrow.