“Henceforth; it is with great dignity and pride that Wawa officially marks November 5, 2009 as Harriet Pearson Day!”

This was part of the proclamation read last week during a very special 90th birthday celebration for one of our most beloved associates, Harriet Pearson, at her store in Cinnaminson, New Jersey.  To mark this special day and thank Harriet for all the joy and happiness she brings to her store associates and customers each and every day, we held an exciting in-store celebration in Harriet’s honor, attended by all the customers and associates who love Harriet so dearly.

As I’ve said in previous entries, I’m a big believer in staying young at heart, and believe this mindset promotes an open mind, and leads to change, creativity and innovation. No one epitomizes this more than Harriet! Harriet is one of those rare individuals who makes a difference in every life she touches.  She joined her Cinnaminson team in 1996 at the spry age of 78 and for over a decade has made all the people who enter her store feel like family.  Five days a week, Harriet prepares the morning breakfast sandwiches, stuffs pretzels, and restocks sandwiches.  And five days a week she greets almost every customer by name and with a hug!

According to Harriet, “Hugs don't cost anything - they're free!  And they make a world of difference.” 

It’s hard to put into words what Harriet means to both the customers and associates at her Cinnaminson store, but you could see at the celebration how lucky everyone felt to know her.  Customers flooded the store to celebrate her special day, and lined up to give her flowers, gifts, and, of course, hugs.

One customer put it best when he said, “Harriet is an everyday hero.  Celebrities and sports heroes get a lot of press - but Harriet is a regular person who makes a huge difference in people's lives.”

Harriet, you are truly our hero.  People like Harriet are very rare, and it always amazes me how many exceptional individuals we have right here at Wawa.  Our associates are truly the reason our customers can’t start their day without their daily stop to Wawa.  It’s not just the products and convenience we provide, but the associates behind the counters who build life-long relationships with our customers.  So here’s to Harriet, our 90-years-young associate. Happy Birthday and here’s to many, many more.

‘Til next time. 

View coverage of Harriet Pearson’s Birthday Celebration at;
http://www.kyw1060.com/In-South-Jersey--a-Wawa-Worker-Proves-It-s-Not-Abo/5608392

We recently held our Service Awards program, which was held the evening of October 9, under a tent on the grounds of Red Roof.  During this event, we celebrate the anniversary milestones of our associates as well as review the history and heritage of the company.  Celebrating service milestones is just one way we have of recognizing the associates who make our values come to life and our company so special.

During the event, we recognized associates celebrating 15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 years with the Company.  These special associates are celebrating a service milestone during a year when Wawa is celebrating a milestone of 45 years in the convenience retailing business. We conducted the celebration under a big top tent at Red Roof, the location of our company headquarters, the former family home of George Wood which went onto become our corporate support offices, just shortly after we opened our first Wawa store in 1964.

I was proud and honored to be able to recognize over 100 award recipients that night whose efforts, along with their thousands of co-workers, have helped us succeed during these uncertain economic times. 

For me, the 45th Wawaversary gives us time to reflect on our evolution as a company and look back at how far we’ve come. As I’ve said before, Wawa’s history dates back to 1803 — first as an iron foundry, then as a dairy, and ultimately as a convenience store chain. And while the stores might look totally different today than what Grahame Wood imaged 45 years ago, we still embrace that same spirit of innovation and dedication to simplifying the lives of our customers.  Grahame would be proud of the changes and innovation but, he would be most proud of how we continue to keep true to our values, and how we continue to celebrate our Associates’ commitment to doing it just a little bit better for our customers. 

Congratulations David Haynie, Evan Emerle, Michael Hornfeck, Kevin Metz, Nicholas Franchi and Daniel Smith, our 2009 Hoagiefest Contest winners!   You gave us everything we could have asked for in original Hoagiefest songs and videos. From an artistic black and white throw-back video to a solo guitar playing hoagie tribute to a psychedelic 60’s inspired video to rap songs written about hoagies and even a bit of country western flare, your entries were filled with creativity and hoagie love!

As many of you know, we hosted a Hoagiefest contest for four weeks on our Hoagiefest.com microsite, during our in-store, summer campaign.  The contest challenged hoagie fanatics to create and submit an original song about Wawa and Hoagiefest or make a video to one of Wawa’s official Hoagiefest tunes.  Contestants competed for Wawa prizes, including free hoagies for a year and a chance to be featured on Wawa.com.  Wawa customers and fans then logged on to Hoagiefest.com and voted for their favorite song or video. 

All of us at Wawa were blown away by the energy and inventiveness infused in every single entry!  Six winners were selected from among 96 total entries, three in the category of original song and three in the category of best video - an achievement we simply had to celebrate! 

So Monday, August 10, we brought our six winners in for a celebration lunch at Red Roof, our corporate headquarters.  Along with Wawa’s marketing team, I got to sit down with these contest winners and talk to them about what inspired them, how much fun they had creating their entries, and why they just gotta hava Wawa.  We even inducted them into the Hoagie Hall of Fame to commemorate their place in Wawa’s hoagie history.  After all, this was our very first video and song contest and we wanted to celebrate our contest winners for exemplifying the vibrant spirit and passion that makes our customers the best customers on the hoagie planet!

Speaking with our Hoagiefest Contest winners made me stop and think about all the ways we strive to be connected and relevant to our customers, and how we create energy and excitement around our in-store campaigns.  More and more we are learning that our microsites, and our overall online presence is a great, fun way for us to do this.  At the time of this entry, we have more than 150,000 Facebook fans – become our fan if you haven’t already! And, we received more than a half million visits to Hoagiefest.com to date, more than 10 times the amount of Web traffic than we received last year to the microsite. What’s even more reassuring is that our online fans are sticking around – accessing an average of nearly four web pages per visit.

Clearly our fans are online and crave information and interaction, and to us part of being a leader in convenience is being as accessible and applicable to customers and fans as possible.  So thank you to our Hoagiefest contest winners for you incredible entries and for making Hoagiefest so much fun, and thank you to all our fans who show their dedication to Wawa both in our stores and online.

‘Til next time…   

Check Out Our Hoagiefest Contest Winners Below!

• 1st Place Video-David Haynie
• Video Name: Sub-Terranean Hoagie Blues

• 2nd Place Video- Evan Emerle
• Video Name: I Love Wawa

• 3rd Place Video-Michael Hornfeck
• Video Name: The Hoagiefest Experience

• 1st Place Song: Kevin Metz 
• Song Name: The Wawa Rap - by Killa Kev & Lil Ame

• 2nd Place Song: Nicholas Franchi
• Song Name: Gotta Have A Wawa

• 3rd Place Song: Daniel Smith 
• Song Name: Don't Call 'Em Heroes