To provide rewarding community service experiences and fellowship
opportunities for all of our employees, retirees, and their families.
To provide value to sponsoring companies by:
– Generating brand visibility
– Building teamwork and developing leadership skills of employees
– Demonstrating the corporate social commitment.
To enable our Life Members to maintain strong ties to our sponsoring
companies.
To be well-known as volunteers meeting a variety of community needs,
with special emphasis on education.
PIONEERS FOCUS ON EDUCATION
The BellSouth Pioneer Volunteers want to be known as “the education volunteers” and have gone back to school to help strengthen the quality of learning for youngsters in our community. This focus on education was created in 1994 to channel the membership’’ energies, talents and commitment to the community in support of our school systems. The Pioneers realize their potential, both individually and in partnership with other groups, to have a significant impact on the crisis in education our communities are experiencing today.
PLAYGROUND MAPS
There’s a good chance you already have a Pioneers Playground Map
in your community. Our first map was painted on a schoolyard by Louisiana Pioneers in the 1980s, but the program really took off in 1994 when we were featured on Good Morning America in partnership with Martin-Senour Paint Company. The brightly colored, 20-foot by 30-foot maps are hard to miss and provide both a tool for educators and educational fun for the kids. Pioneers have painted over 400 maps at schools across the BellSouth region. The program now includes a teaching aid, containing games the children can play using the maps.
JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT
The Pioneers have also partnered with Junior Achievement organizations in the BellSouth region. There is a mutual history between the Telephone Pioneers and Junior Achievement, which has its roots in the founding of our organizations. Theodore N. Vail, the first present of the Telephone Pioneers, was also a co-founder, in 1919, of Junior Achievement. Junior Achievement programs are recognized by educators for their success in bringing outside business perspectives and role models into the classroom. In the past year, the BellSouth Pioneer Volunteer conducted over 500 Junior Achievement classes through the BellSouth region.
PIONEER TALKING BOOKS
In 1960 the Telephone Pioneers were designated the official talking book repair group for the Library of Congress. Since then, Pioneers have repaired some two million of the special cassette and record players used by the visually impaired to listen to material they cannot read.