Red Lobster 2003 Annual Report Download - page 53

2003 ANNUAL REPORT 51
The mission of Catching the Dream in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
is to provide Native American communities, tribes and tribal
organizations with educated professionals by providing scholarships
for high-achieving students who have expressed a willingness to
return to work for their communities. In fiscal 2003, the Darden
Restaurants Foundation supported that goal with financial support
for Native American business students interested in careers in
culinary science/hospitality programs.
Since Catching the Dream was established in 1986, more
than 370 scholarship recipients have returned to their communities,
and the rate of employment for graduates is 100 percent.
HELPING PEOPLE HELP THEMSELVES
Conklin Center for the Blind
Conklin Center for the Blind in Daytona Beach, Florida, is one of
the few organizations in the state helping blind people with multi-
ple handicaps, such as seizures, hearing loss or developmental
disabilities. A grant from the Darden Restaurants Foundation is
helping the organization with its Supported Living and Supported
Employment Programs.
For a person with multiple handicaps, finding a job is just the
first of many hurdles standing in the way of independence. Everyday
tasks most people take for granted, such as buying groceries, paying
bills and finding transportation become monumental tasks.
Through its programs, the Conklin Center empowers
motivated adults with disabilities to live on their own and become
productive citizens. Participants live in dorms and take classes to learn
the life and job skills they need for independence. After completing
the program and finding jobs, students continue to receive training
and lifelong supported employment and living services to maintain
their independence.
PRESERVING OUR ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL HERITAGE
The Sphinx Organization
Founded in 1996, The Sphinx Organization helps encourage and
develop the classical music talents of youths in minority communities
that don’t have formal classical music programs. The organization pro-
vides a year-round curriculum specializing in classical music education
and awareness for string players. Student musicians take part in a variety
of training activities, master classes and seminars with renowned musi-
cians and professionals, culminating in an annual competition.
Supported by a Darden Restaurants Foundation grant, Musical
Encounters is another Sphinx program that takes student players to
schools nationwide, where they perform and answer questions. It gives
other students an opportunity to see that classical music study is not
only available for young people – including minorities – but also
a possible educational and career choice.
PROTECTING OUR NATURAL RESOURCES
Rancho Nuevo
At Darden Restaurants, we understand conserving and sustaining
a natural resource means more than just protecting it. We need to
get to the source of its decline, which in many cases is associated with
a region’s economic needs. Take the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle. For
centuries, inhabitants of Rancho Nuevo on Mexico’s Gulf Coast – this
turtle species’ only nesting site – used the turtle as a source of food and
income, dwindling its population to the point of near extinction.
As part of a comprehensive conservation and recovery program
supported by the Darden Restaurants Foundation, though, the peo-
ple of this coastal community are now handcrafting and selling objets
d’art as a source of income, instead of relying on turtles. By helping
provide the residents of this remote area with an income source that
lets them provide for their families without harvesting turtles and
turtle eggs, Darden is helping save the world’s most endangered sea
turtle from extinction.
And it’s working. The Kemp’s Ridley Turtle Restoration Project
saw a record number of nests for the 2003 nesting season. In fact, the
Kemp’s Ridley may soon be taken off the endangered species list!
(From Left to Right) • Conklin Center for the Blind helps people with multiple handicaps find jobs and maintain their independence. • The Sphinx Organization makes it possible for
talented students in minority communities to study and perform classical music. • Instead of living off the endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle, the people of Rancho Nuevo, Mexico,
make and sell hand-crafted art now.
Corporate Responsibility