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Award
Winners
1997
BUSINESS
AWARD
The ASA Business
of the Year Awards, one for large companies and one for medium/small
companies, recognize exemplary company programs that meet the needs
of older people and their families, expand public awareness of the private
sector's increasing involvement with older people and create performance
models for other companies to emulate.
The ASA Business
of the Year Awards, one for large companies and one for medium/small
companies, recognize exemplary company programs that meet the needs
of older people and their families, expand public awareness of the private
sector's increasing involvement with older people and create performance
models for other companies to emulate.
LARGE
COMPANY
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
Dallas, Texas
 Nominated
by Aging and Long-Term Care of Eastern Washington, formerly the Eastern
Washington Area Agency on Aging, Southwest Airlines is recognized as
this year's winner of the ASA Business Award for large companies for
its 25-year commitment to quality service for its older customers Operating
out of 48 cities in 22 states, Southwest Airlines carried 44,785,573
revenue passengers in 1995. This Texas-based airline has contributed
transportation, financial support, advertising support, time and its
employees' talents to improve the lives of older adults. Their "Home
for the Holidays" program, 18 years old, has provided free transportation
to almost 900 older adults to visit loved ones during the holiday season.
It is the first and only such program in the United States and was recognized
with a Presidential Citation.
Southwest Airlines
has exhibited a long history of working with the aging network to improve
not only their service for older customers but also to help members
of the network provide better customer service to their older clientele.
These collaborative efforts have involved area agencies on aging, the
Administration on Aging at the regional and national level, state departments
on aging, the Southwest Society on Aging, the Mid-America Council on
Aging, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Alzheimer's
Association, and the Silver Haired Legislature. Southwest, through its
vice president special marketing, Camille Keith, has assisted and participated
in activities related to eldercare and the workplace, including a communications
campaign on eldercare for the Region VI Administration on Aging.
In all these efforts,
Southwest has attempted to be a positive voice for older adult issues
and to lend their marketing and advertising experience to the aging
network. They have worked to create clearer communications between business,
government and the consumer on issues of importance to older adults.
Twice Southwest has received New Choices magazine's Maturity
Market Advertising Award for sensitive, non-ageist advertising.
HONORABLE MENTION
The May Department Stores Company
St. Louis, Missouri
The May Department
Stores Company is one of the country's leading department store companies,
operating 346 quality department stores through eight regional divisions.
These divisions include Lord and Taylor, Hecht's, Foley's, Robinsons-May,
Kaufmann's, Filene's, Famous-Barr, and Meier and Frank. In 1995, the
company had $10.5 billion in sales.
May's first priority
is to assist the communities where they operate. The company has contributed
over $19 million to more than 2,000 nonprofit organizations. Since 1978,
the company has collaborated with the Older Adult Service and Information
System (OASIS). This collaboration has grown to where the company now
contributes more than $1 million per year in direct program support
as well as hosting OASIS centers in its stores throughout the country.
Dedicated to enhancing the lives of older adults, there are 30 OASIS
centers, averaging 2700 square feet, in 25 cities. They serve more than
240,000 adults aged 55 and older. May also equips and supports the maintenance
of each center.
The centers offer
educational programs focused on creating opportunities for older adults
to continue their personal growth and service to their communities.
The OASIS Intergenerational Tutoring Program is a significant avenue
for older adults to contribute to their communities. Operational in
16 cites and reaching 4,600 children in the 1995-1996 school year, some
850 tutors help children to learn to read, build self-esteem and enjoy
school.
MEDIUM/SMALL
COMPANY
SIT AND BE FIT™
Spokane, Washington
 Sit
and Be Fit™ is America's only national exercise program primarily
for older adults and others with limited mobility. The program involves
a total body workout in thirty minutes. Since its first transmission
in 1987 from 36 stations, the program is now broadcast from 100 public
service stations, including stations in New York, San Francisco and
Chicago. With 19 different videotapes, plus audiotapes and exercise
products, Sit and Be Fit™ provides its customers, ranging in age
from 55 to 90, with products suited for their own personal fitness level.
In addition to national recognition, the program has been invited as
a Model of Good Practice at the Fourth International Congress on Physical
Activity, Aging and Sports in Heidelberg, Germany. Numerous testimonials
from participants speak to the program's impact in dealing with pain
and improving the quality of their lives.
Products include
The Caregiver's Guide to Exercise to provide caregivers with
a tool to incorporate gentle exercise into the daily routine of the
one they are caring for, the Tone and Stretch IV Video, The
All-Sitting Exercise Video, and Chair Exercise Videos for Every
Level of Senior Fitness. There are also exercise videotapes for
people with arthritis, stroke, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, osteoporosis
and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
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