Tag Archives: Children’s Charities

Valero Energy Corporation gearing up for Valero Texas Open kick-off

By North SA Chamber Editor
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Valero logoValero Energy Corporation and the Valero Texas Open staff are already working hard toward this year’s Valero Texas Open PGA Tour tournament, which takes place from March 27-30 at the AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio. The tournament, which is one of the largest professional sporting events to take place annually in San Antonio, is followed up on March 31 by the Benefit for Children – a unique golf event for more than 2,000 players with morning and afternoon golf outings on 11 of San Antonio’s top courses as well as a sporting clays shooting tournament at a first-class course.

It takes a tremendous amount of work to put on the event each year – including the efforts of more than 1,300 volunteers – but it’s worth it. Together, the Valero Texas Open and Benefit for Children events raised $10 million for children’s charities in 2013 to bring the total raised beyond $81.5 million since the tournament was started.

Valero_photoThe funds for charity are raised through sponsorships, and they are distributed to children’s charities in all of the areas where Valero has major operations in the proportions that those areas raised funds. Valero employees in those areas form committees to choose worthy charities to receive the funds. Last year in San Antonio, nearly 100 children’s charities received a share of the $2.7 million allocated to this year as a result of the tournament.

This year the Valero Texas Open and the Benefit for Children will emphasize the “Drive to $100 million” as the 2014 events help the tournament toward its goal of surpassing $100 million raised for charities. The Valero Texas Open has been the top fundraising event on the PGA Tour for the past several years.

PGA Tour players completing this year promise to feature the same kind of big names that vied for last year’s trophy, including Rory McIlroy, Jim Furyk, Charley Hoffman, K.J. Choi, Padraig Harrington, and 2013 champion Martin Laird.

In winning the 2013 tournament, Laird not only got to take home the top purse of more than $1.1 million, but he also was presented with a custom-made pair of cowboy boots to remind him of his success in Texas.

Ticket packages for the upcoming 2014 Valero Texas Open are already on sale at http://www.valerotexasopen.com

Valero demonstrates generosity to community through United Way, Valero Texas Open/Benefit for Children Charity Award Breakfast

By North SA Chamber Editor
Posted on by Email to a Friend

Valero logoIn recent weeks, Valero Energy Corporation has hosted two major events that have showcased the generosity of the company and its employees, as well as Valero’s commitment to the communities where it does business.

The first event, on Thursday, Aug. 29, was the culmination of Valero’s annual United Way campaign. Every year, Valero employees make pledges to support the United Way through donations or ongoing payroll deductions. Valero frequently achieves 100 percent employee participation in its campaigns, as well as some of the highest per-capita giving levels among San Antonio employers. In this year’s campaign, Valero employees surpassed their goal of $2.5 million in just the first 2 minutes and 49 seconds of the campaign. For surpassing their goal so quickly, Valero employees earned the right to wear jeans to work on Fridays.

In the meantime, they also earned the right to have fun at the Givers Celebration and Talent Show Finale, which was set for the 29th. Celebrity judges watched over the proceedings as teams of Valero employees went head-to-head in the Valero’s Got Talent competition, and a silent auction at the event raised an additional $47,480 to donate to the United Way.

The second event was the Valero Texas Open/Benefit for Children Charity Award Breakfast on Thursday, Sept.5. Officials from 98 children’s charities in the San Antonio area received funds totaling $2.7 million as part of the distribution of money raised during the 2013 Valero Texas Open and Benefit for Children Golf Classic during a breakfast celebration at Valero’s headquarters.

The golf tournament raises money each year for children’s charities in the areas where Valero has major operations, and then makes distributions in each of those areas to children’s charities that Valero employees nominate. The $2.7 million share that San Antonio charities received was part of the overall $10 million that the tournament raised. Distributions to charities continue at other locations where Valero has refineries and ethanol plants.

Since Valero took over the title sponsorship of the Texas Open in 2002, more than $81.5 million has been distributed to children’s charities, including $32 million in the San Antonio area alone. With the support of our Birdies for Charity program, our Valero Texas Open is currently the most charitable tournament on the PGA Tour.

This effort has always been extremely volunteer-driven. The Valero Texas Open and Benefit for Children Golf Classic is Valero’s biggest volunteer effort of the year – requiring nearly 1,000 volunteers over five days, who contributed over 9,000 volunteer hours during the tournament.

The best part about both of these events is that they aren’t one-time happenings. Valero is already planning next year’s Valero Texas Open and its United Way campaign.