by Jake Housel
Corporate Engagement Advisor
Most Utahns recognize Scheels’ beautiful building off the I-15 Freeway. The mention of Scheels in conversations among families in the Sandy area will conjure pleasant memories of their children enjoying the giant ferris wheel inside the “Disneyland of Sporting Goods”. Scheels exhibits many of the values that our community holds dear. Chief among those is community outreach and volunteerism. The position Scheels takes in regards to this special area of our community sounds as elegant to our community’s ears as the announcement of the Utah Jazz are back in the NBA playoffs.
What is this special area, you ask? It is none other than the area of education. From its website, one can catch the passion Scheels employees have for education from the following statement:
“Scheels realizes that education is not only important to the future of our youth and young adults, but to the future of our communities. One method is helping students explore learning outside the classroom by hosting field trips and other learning opportunities to schools within our stores. Groups enjoy learning about the “Walk of Presidents” and even seeing the animals within our stores or at our wildlife mountain (Sparks Scheels). We believe hands-on learning makes for a greater experience, and allows students to achieve an overall better understanding.”
Well, that is a nice statement, but how does Scheels in Utah live up to such a wonderful manifesto?
For years, the Scheels in Sandy has partnered with United Way of Salt Lake and has donated a wide variety of sporting goods to benefit our community schools.
When asked how Scheels has helped students, Guadalupe School Director Kyle Price responded, “Scheels donations have been very helpful to the students and families at Guadalupe School. We’ve been using the donations as prizes for students who improve their attendance. We have 50 kids who have struggled getting to school on time or even coming at all, and the prizes have definitely helped to motivate them. In the afterschool program the donations are being used as prizes as well. Students in afterschool are able to earn “wolf bucks” and each week there is a store set up where kids can cash them in. This has been very helpful in encouraging positive behavior and has been wildly popular. We’ve also used them in our STAR reading program and kids get to choose a prize when they move up a grade level in their reading proficiency. We are very grateful for the support.”
Certainly, Scheels is a worthy example of how a corporation makes a difference in children’s education. The folks at Scheels are a pleasure to work with and the staff and company culture is a feather in Utah’s community cap!
Thank you. Scheels, for being #SLChangemakers!
