Rhythm, teamwork and a strong volunteer spirit

Enbridge's VIP program surges past $1-million in community funding

Trinity Sorvari is handy with a paddle. And the prospect of a hot summer day out on the lake is hard to resist.

But the annual Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival holds an even greater allure for the Superior, Wisconsin-based power and commissioning engineer with Enbridge – and it all has to do with teamwork.

“It’s a great feeling when everything is clicking, and everyone in the boat is working together,” says Sorvari. “You’ve got everyone paddling in the same rhythm, giving it a full range of motion, and working as one – that’s very exciting.”

Enbridge has fielded a team in the Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival pretty much since the event was launched in 2002. The annual festival, with a 450-metre race course off Barkers Island near Superior, raises funds for the Essentia Health Foundation. Last summer, 14 teams and nearly 1,000 paddlers raised more than $92,000 in total for Essentia’s cancer survivorship program.

Sorvari is gearing up for his third Lake Superior Dragon Boat Festival in mid-August with about two dozen members of Enbridge’s “Crude Intentions” team. And like many of his Enbridge teammates, he’s using the company’s Volunteers in Partnership (VIP) program to maximize his contributions to a very worthy community cause.

During the 2013 edition of the festival, numerous members of the Enbridge team took advantage of the VIP program, with their own fundraising efforts doubled through a company match.

“When I started working for Enbridge, I noticed that employees here take part in a lot of community activities. I thought the Dragon Boat Festival sounded like a great group activity, and a terrific cause,” says Sorvari. “And through the VIP program, you feel like you’re giving more. Because of the VIP program, a lot of the people I work with at Enbridge tend to be more interested or more active in community causes and non-profit organizations.”

Enbridge’s VIP program recognizes employee contributions of time and dollars to charitable organizations in countries where Enbridge has operations, by providing additional support in terms of paid volunteer time and top-up financial contributions.

And earlier this year, Enbridge’s VIP program hit a mammoth milestone – surpassing the $1-million mark in total funds (along with nearly 8,600 employee volunteer hours) donated to non-profit organizations in the United States and Canada since the program’s 2010 inception.

“The VIP program was created to support our employees, and leverage the work they were already doing in the community,” says Katherine Seheult, a Calgary-based Community Partners Advisor and VIP program lead. “It’s apparent that they’re taking full advantage.”

Employee participation in the VIP program continues to rise. During 2013, more than 1,370 employees took part – devoting more than 4,000 volunteer hours and generating nearly $360,000 in contributions, including matching company funds, for non-profits in communities near Enbridge’s projects and operations.

Since 2010, more than 3,900 employees have participated in the VIP program.

“These statistics speak to the sheer number of caring, community-minded people who work at Enbridge,” says Seheult. “They are statistics that make us exceedingly proud.”