AN ANNUAL BENEFIT FOR THE U.S. DISABLED SKI TEAM To the US Disabled Ski Team: Good Luck in Torino and Bring Home the Yahtzee! BearingPoint & EMC Chris Devlin Young’s are Proud to be SkiTAM’s 2005 Platinum Sponsors Private War Joe Rooney and Ralph Green Cable’s Odd Couple SkiTAM at 10 © 2005 BearingPoint, Inc. All rights reserved. A special advertising supplement to Multichannel News SkiTAM05 CoverF-B.indd 1 5/17/05 5:35:45 PM AN ANNUAL BENEFIT OF THE U.S. DISABLED SKI TEAM w w w . s k i t a m . c o m Dear Friend of SkiTAM: Publisher Reed Business Information I learned a valuable lesson at SkiTAM this year from Jon Kreamelmeyer, my counterpart with the U.S. Disabled Nordic Team. When JK was introduced at the opening reception, Editor there was an undercurrent of cocktail conversation that made it impossible to hear what M.C. Antil he was saying. However, unlike the previous speakers who tried to rise above the noise by shouting, JK spoke softly into the microphone. Project Management Anne Marie Hukriede - Sadler & Dorchester At first, no one listened, so he stopped. Then he started again, and this time rather than Lorie Sadler - Sadler & Dorchester speaking louder, he spoke even softer. The second time, those in front began to quiet Doug Craver - Knotice Ltd. down and started hushing those behind them. But still there was a lot of ambient noise. So JK stopped again. Then he started again. This time quiet swept across the room, to Editorial Design & Layout the point that soon only a handful of people in the back were still talking. But even they Steve Hammond - Sadler & Dorchester sensed something had changed and you could see them looking around, wondering why the room had grown so quiet. Principal Photography The lesson is this: when you want to be heard, speak softly and get to the point. Rob Stuehrk - Agile Imaging Bob Sullivan - Agile Imaging So rather than hitting you over the head, I will simply say this once. And I take the lib- erty to use the exact line JK used the night he quieted the crowd with a whisper: Thank Additional Photography you so much for all your support. Without SkiTAM, this team, literally, would not exist. Miguel Priest - Sharpshooters Steve Hammond - Sadler & Dorchester Sincerely, Kevin Jardine Head Coach U.S. Disabled Alpine Team TABLE OF CONTENTS CABLES ODD COUPLE ........................... 2 S T E E R I N G C O M M I T T E E CHAIRPERSONS SILENT AUCTION THE CONSTANT/TOUGH AS NAILS ...... 5 Chuck Ellis Dena Bradshaw Time Warner Cable Broadbus Technologies Steve Raymond Juliet Randall PRIVATE WAR .......................................... 6 Disney & ESPN Networks Marcum Marcom Patty Bullington SPONSORSHIP Charter Media Mike Hayashi SKITAM AT 10 ........................................11 Time Warner Cable RACE Joe Rooney Anne Marie Hukriede Cox Communications Sadler & Dorchester RACE RESULTS .......................................12 Brad Parobek EVENT Janco Partners Susan Burgstiner WHERE ARE THEY NOW ......................12 Marketing On Demand VOLUNTEERS Shannon Hancock MARKETING Ronda Dorchester, ATHLETE PARTNERSHIP GENERATION NEXT ..............................15 Anne Marie Hukriede PROGRAM Sadler & Dorchester Dena Bradshaw Doug Craver Broadbus Technologies THE TEACHER ........................................16 Knotice Ltd. Karen Woodruff DST Innovis PUBLICITY CHRIS WADDELL/GINNY KAUS ..........16 Lela Cocoros GIFT BAGS LeRae Marsik John Hildabrand October Strategies Cox Communications 56 THINGS YOU NEVER KNEW ..........19 COMMUNICATIONS Debbie Barackman SPECIAL THANKS/TEAM ROSTER ......20 iN DEMAND SPONSORS .............................................20 SkiTAM05 TOC.indd 1 5/17/05 4:03:39 PM In 1992, Ralph Green was a 15 year old like a lot of a great story.” And when he does he’s so authen- BROTHERS others. He was a good kid, a great athlete and a tic, so real, people love it. It’s not often these days capable enough student that he had realistic expec- that you see a public speaker being real, and Ralph tations of becoming a Division I college quarterback. Green, first and foremost, is real.” IN ARMS But then one night in Brooklyn, during a drive-by In fact, Green has gotten so good at his portion of gang shooting, a bullet severed the artery in Ralph’s the Rooney/Green one-two punch that a few months Don’t be fooled by appearances, upper thigh, causing irreparable damage to his leg. ago he shared the stage with Cox CEO Jim Robbins Soon both his dreams of athletic greatness and his and COO Pat Esser for a state-of-the-company Joe Rooney and Ralph Green are leg were gone. address. The experience made a lasting impression a lot more alike than you’d think. Rooney made the on Green. “At first, Jim Robbins didn’t know who Following over a year’s worth of surgery, at a cost of I was, but when we started talking he treated me By M.C. Antil well over $1.5 million, Ralph Green made a decision. decision soon after like I mattered. And I treated him like a fellow Cox He still wanted to be a great athlete and would go employee. I think he liked what he saw in me and On the surface they are polar oppo- to great lengths to make that happen. He had heard their first meeting felt that as an athlete I was a good representative of about the disabled skiing program at Winter Park, his company.” sites in so many ways, it’s difficult to Colorado and determined that it was for him. So, that Green would know where to start. One is white with the support of his strong and loving mother, Cox’s level of commitment to Green is perhaps best Green gathered up a few hundred dollars and took a be the perfect spokes- evidenced by two gestures of corporate largesse the and able-bodied, the other black and train west. company made this spring. During the closing din- missing his left leg. One was raised man as Cox rolled out ner at SkiTAM 2005, Rooney got up in front of the He and Rooney met at SkiTAM in 2004 and immedi- packed room and announced that Cox would not in upper-middle class suburbia, the ately struck up a friendship. Rooney explained that its program. only renew its sponsorship of Ralph for 2006, but for at the time Cox was getting ready to launch “Take four full years after that. other in the unforgiving and often it to the MAX,” an internal campaign designed to violent Bedford-Stuyvesant section of instill in Cox employees a sense of ownership and a greater appreciation for And as much as that sponsorship renewal meant to Ralph, what Rooney had the level of competition in the marketplace. When Rooney met Green, the done just a few weeks earlier made an even greater impression. Prior to the Brooklyn. One is a well-compensated wheels started to turn. He explained, “What struck me about Ralph, as I got World Championships in Vail, Rooney made arrangements for Grace Green, senior executive of a major media to know him, is that he embodies the Cox spirit. He is genuine, and in fact who had never seen her son ski, much less compete, to travel to Vail on an genuinely nice, but he is also aggressive and demands even more of himself all-expense-paid trip. Mrs. Green had never been west of the Hudson River, company, the other a still-learning than others do.” much less to the Rocky Mountains, so the trip represented much like the one professional skier who counts every her son took just a few years earlier in pursuit of his dream. “I was scared to Rooney made the decision soon after their first meeting that Green would death to travel that far, but I’d do it again tomorrow if it meant being able to last nickel, not because he is by be the perfect spokesman as Cox rolled out its program. Their first road trip see my son ski again,” she said. together was to the Cox system in San Diego, which for a young black man nature frugal, but because he has to. from Brooklyn is a lot further than just 3,000 miles and five hours in a plane. As for the partnership and the unique bond between Rooney and Green, “Ralph had never seen the Pacific Ocean, so we were able to mix a little each offers their take on why it runs so deep. Said Rooney, “One of the business and pleasure and let him experience things that makes this thing work between Yet in a very basic and real way, Joe something special.” Ralph and Cox is that neither of us is just Rooney and Ralph Green are like twin looking for a simple write-the-check sort At the Customer Care center Rooney and of sponsorship. We want something more, sons of different mothers, two people Green gave the employees what Green now something with value that goes beyond calls “the old one-two punch.” Rooney led mere money.” whose bond goes beyond the mutu- off with a power point outline of Take it to ally beneficial sponsorship agree- the Max, and Green followed it up with a Green added, “Sure we’re different in many from-the-heart talk about things like losing ways, but the one thing that Joe and I ment that Rooney’s company, Cox his leg and the decision to leave everything share is that we both strive for excellence. Communications, and Green currently he knew behind to follow his dream. The Cox He started out selling cable door-to-door customer service people loved it and a year and is now senior vice president of Cox enjoy.