When the bonfires of WaterFire Providence are lit this season, several corporate sponsors will be lending manpower and money to ensure the event runs smoothly.
“It makes the sponsorship more unique,” said Tim Ray, WaterFire’s public affairs and media relations coordinator. “If a company is sending their employees to volunteer, there’s more of an ownership to the event.”
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MetLife Auto & Home, Amica Mutual Insurance Company and Fidelity Investments will each send a crew of employees to staff the event, including fire tenders, greeters and setup help.
“It’s not an oddity for this to happen,” Ray said. “A number of companies have involved their employees on some level over a number of years.”
Fidelity and Amica, however, are taking their involvement to another level, Ray said.
Amica is sponsoring a carnivale-themed activity for its Aug. 20 fire that will raise money for both WaterFire and the Rhode Island Community Food Bank. The Lincoln-based company will sell carnivale masks for $3 to the general public. Participants will be able to decorate the masks at an Amica-sponsored booth.
“It’s an opportunity for employees to get out in the community and volunteer,” said Patricia O’Hara, Amica’s senior advertising and public relations coordinator.
O’Hara said the booth will first be open to the Rhode Island Boys’ and Girls’ Club. East Greenwich artist Susan Day will help the kids decorate the masks.
In the past, Amica has sponsored employee volunteer events with Habitat for Humanity in Fitchburg, Mass., and smaller cleanup projects in Providence. Though this year is Amica’s third time sponsoring a WaterFire event, O’Hara said the carnivale project is “probably the biggest we’ve done in recent years.”
Fidelity Investments, which has sponsored WaterFire events in the past, is also adding an “interactive” element to their involvement this year.
“Anytime we sponsor something, we look for a way to involve employee volunteers,” said Holly Jensen, public affairs manager at Fidelity.
Roughly 70 Fidelity employees participated at the Aug. 6 fire. In addition to filling traditional WaterFire volunteer positions, the company will also bring a little artistry to the event.
The investment firm will sponsor an origami crane-folding tent to teach people how to create the paper art.
“The cranes are a symbol of peace, and we wanted to spread a peaceful message,” Jensen said.
The idea stems from a holiday card Fidelity sent in 2002. Included in the card was an origami outline and instructions on how to fold it. WaterFire creator Barnaby Evans received one of the cards. When the time came to sell Fidelity on the idea of corporate sponsorship, Evans brought 1,000 cranes with him to the presentation.
“The cranes were folded by WaterFire volunteers … and Barnaby suggested that our employees might want to make the cranes,” Jensen said.
The idea took off, and for the past two years Fidelity employees have folded thousands of the paper birds to distribute at WaterFire.
“Some people fold them at home with their family and friends and they say it’s a real opportunity to sit down with them and shut off the television,” Jensen said.
Last year, Fidelity employees folded 8,000 cranes for WaterFire. This year, they’ll take their folding skills to the event to share with the public from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Fidelity’s origami-folding tent.
“WaterFire is one of those events that’s such a signature community event that people are pretty excited to volunteer,” Jensen said.
Twenty-one WaterFires with corporate sponsorship are scheduled this season.
