ORLANDO – As part of the Orlando Magic’s continuing commitment to the community, Magic staff through the Magic Volunteer Program (MVP) have reached 100,000 community service hours to the Central Florida community. To celebrate this milestone, approximately 25 Magic graduate associates along with Magic rookie Tristan da Silva and Magic Community Ambassador Bo Outlaw participated in a service project at United Against Poverty (150 W. Michigan St., Orlando, 32806) on Tues., Sept. 10 from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. The team’s newest intern group and the Magic’s rookie, da Silva, were introduced to the Magic’s volunteer program for the first time and assisted in sorting, cleaning and stocking supplies/items/clothing for United Against Poverty’s Member Marketplace, Member Share Grocery, Emergency Food Pantry, and the STEP Clothing Closet.
“The Orlando Magic are so proud of our staff for achieving this 100,000-hour milestone of community volunteer work. Following the DeVos family’s leadership, volunteerism has always been and continues to be a core value of the Magic organization,” said Magic CEO Alex Martins. “We are incredibly proud of our staff for their dedication to our great city and salute them for their generosity of time and treasure. We’re also excited to be able to introduce our newest Magic employees, our graduate associates and Tristan, to this time-honored tradition as we encourage them to continue giving back to our community.”
The MVP was developed to encourage Orlando Magic employees to get out and get involved in the community. The program began in July of 2006 with the goal of performing 2,000 hours of community service during the 2006-07 season; 3,800+ hours were tracked that first year. Since program inception, 100,000+ service hours in the Central Florida community have been tracked.
More than 200 employees (full time, part time, interns, players and coaches) participate in numerous events throughout each year with a large focus on the Magic’s four areas of interest— education, the arts, health/wellness and housing/homelessness. The past season, the full staff contributed to multiple activities in the community including the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation (OMYF) Open charity golf tournament, Thanksgiving at the Coalition for the Homeless, Magic turkey dinner distribution, Magic and PepsiCo. youth holiday shopping spree, Orlando Wine Festival & Auction benefiting the OMYF, and Habitat for Humanity builds, among others. This past season, the Magic had 50 staff members serve on a total of 78 different local boards including Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida, Foundation for Orange County Public Schools, African American Chamber of Commerce and Orlando Ballet, to name a few.
The MVP is unique in that it allows employees to volunteer during work hours. As an added incentive, employees who reach a certain level of volunteer hours in the community will be rewarded and receive a monetary donation to a charity of their choice. Magic staff will distribute $5,000 to local charities of their choice. There is also an annual award given to the Magic staff member who contributes the most hours in the community.
In addition, through the MVP, employees are assisted with board placement in the community, opportunities to volunteer at all Magic-sponsored community events, OMYF sponsored projects and other nonprofit organizations while matching employees in a youth mentoring program.
