Recently, Marriott won the World Savers award from Conde Nast Traveler for its culture of service and social responsibility. This was a great honor, and I've accepted some awards before, but World Savers is certainly the most impressive. It sounds like an award you'd give to Mother Teresa.
But seriously, our Marriott associates do save the world in small ways every day. For example, through our Youth Career Initiative program, they train disadvantaged youths to work in their hotels and begin careers in the hospitality industry. This helps break the cycle of poverty, but it also provides us with some outstanding associates.
When I accepted the award, I told the story of Dumitru Marius. He's a server at our hotel in Bucharest. Dumitru was born in a prison near Bucharest when Ceausescu was in power. He grew up in the Romanian orphanages where food and loving care were in very short supply. Dumitru hopes, one day, to offer his children a life much different from his own.
Meiriana Silva is another graduate of our Youth Career Initiative and now works for the JW Marriott hotel in Rio de Janeiro. She grew up in the favelas of Rio trying to help her widowed mother whose cleaning wages didn't cover the family's expenses for food and clothing. Meiriana says Youth Career Initiative taught her how to speak, dress and present herself to people. She aspires to be a manager and says, "I have entered a world I don't want to leave."
These are just a couple of stories of the more than 1,600 youths in ten countries who have been trained and placed in jobs through this program. And now our program is expanding into Egypt, Costa Rica, India, Vietnam and the Caribbean, and will soon reach other Latin American and Southeast Asian countries.
To help continue the Youth Career Initiative's expansion, the J. Willard Marriott and Alice S. Marriott Foundation has made a $250,000 grant. You can also help if you'd like to help change people's lives by going to eBay this month to bid on some great vacations at our JW Marriott hotels and resorts around the world. The auction continues through the month of October. Not only will you enjoy a great vacation, you'll also be supporting a very worthwhile cause.
I'm Bill Marriott and thank you for helping me keep Marriott on the move.
Conde Nast Traveler Recognizes Marriott
Dear Mr. Marriott, As a child growing up in DC, Hot Shoppes was a favorite place for my family to go out to dinner -- the one on Wisconsin Avenue and the one on Connecticut and later the one Arlington. My 4th birtday party in 1950 was held amid a snow storm -- we braved it to the Hot Shoppe! Susan and I attended Gordon Jr. High from which she went on to Wilson and I went to Western. I hope she has had a happy life and family. As my mother began investing, her first stock purchase on her own was Marriott. Over decades she bought as much as she could. She was always impressed with your business ethics and personal standards. This money grew into a resource that funded the care she needed as she fought her way through Alzheimer's disease for seven years. So, I will always have a warm spot in my heart for Marriott. When my daughter and I traveled around looking for colleges, we stayed at Courtyards throughout the SE and have been a rewards member for decades. As a special treat, we recently stayed at the new JW Marriott complex with spa in Orlando and loved everything about the experience. We also stayed this summer at the Marriott Financial Center while my daughter was interviewing for internships in NYC next summer. So, for about 60 years your family, your efforts have enriched mine and given us all a bright beacon of morality and good business ethics to admire. With warm regards, Jean Ellicott Keenan
Posted by: Jean Ellicott Keenan | 11/07/2007 at 03:00 AM
dear bill,
it seems that corporate social responsibility is a buzzword for every company these days. but as i know it, marriott was one of the first in this segment. its always a pleasure to see large faceless companies putting on a compassionate face to help better this world of ours.
god bless you bill !!!
cheers
mihir
Posted by: mihir | 10/24/2007 at 07:41 PM
At this rate, the effort of your hotels will help a great deal toward making the world a livable place for all. I'm really impressed by your hotels' promotions within this sort of matter. While your concerns of the environment (on which you've written before) are fine in their own right, your effort on directly changing the lives of people is really a worthy cause.
Posted by: William | 10/23/2007 at 12:21 PM
Dear Mr. Marriott,
During the brief period of time that I spent as an employee at the Marriott in Amman Jordan, I came across a story that made me value your establishments greatly. Being a member of the AYS/Front Office back then, I was due to have cross training at the room service department. On my first day I was introduced to a young man in his very early twenties who worked there. He was an orphan and was brought up at an SOS village in Jordan. Those humanitarian villages host hundred of children with similar cases. The Marriott with its well known international recruitment procedures accepted him and was training him in hopes of appointing him to be a member of its staff. At least if he doesn't get employed with the Marriott eventually he would have had training at something that would help him have a job and have a roof over his head in the future. Lets all keep in mind that doing something nice to people a lot of times doesn't cost us too much. Even if it's as simple as returning a greetings with a smile to an employee in the department you manage or to a colleague at work; helping an old lady cross a busy street; perhaps filling a bottle of water during a hot spell in the summer and buying a sandwich to a person in need. You could be making some ones day with a smile or saving a life with a dollar to spare.
Posted by: Feras Werr | 10/23/2007 at 05:21 AM