83 per cent of Canadians wish more of us would get inspired to give back to community charities

Coca-Cola Live Positively initiative lauds local heroes and encourages Canadians to get involved

TORONTO, April 11, 2012 /CNW/ - How involved have you been with a community initiative or organization lately? Do you wish Canadians would spend more time supporting these important groups? You aren't alone. A recent survey conducted by Coca-Cola Canada asked 1,000 Canadians what they thought about community charitable programs. The majority, 83 per cent of those surveyed, said they wished more people would get involved with community programs. These activities make a difference every day, with 8 in 10 Canadians revealing that they see the direct benefits of contributing time and money, in communities that are safer, healthier and better overall.

A new campaign from Coca-Cola launching today aims to raise awareness of the importance of community involvement by profiling the efforts of local community heroes.  Coca-Cola Canada has partnered with three leading Canadian organizations - ParticipACTION, Breakfast Clubs of Canada and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) - to make a positive difference in communities across Canada.

Making it Personal - Local Heroes
The survey revealed that Canadians are more likely to get involved in programs that are personal to them. Canadians consider initiatives that inspire kids and teens to get more physically active, environmentally-oriented programs and breakfast programs for kids among their top priorities for community support.

Coca-Cola Canada has produced three, must-see, personal accounts of individuals involved at the heart of community programs offered by Breakfast Clubs of Canada, ParticipACTION and WWF. One film demonstrates how Breakfast Clubs of Canada helps 119,000 kids through the personal story of a young boy who starts his day with a healthy breakfast at school.   Another segment features a teenage break dancer who discovered a new side of himself with the help of ParticipACTION, which supports more than 2,000 community groups across Canada.  The third film provides a brief snapshot of the life of a WWF scientist working to help conserve the Arctic home of polar bears.

The short-film documentaries were created with the inspiring vision of Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Hubert Davis. They will air nationwide starting April 12 and can be found online at www.livepositively.ca.

Companies Play a Big Role
The survey revealed that Canadians see a strong role for corporations in backing community-based programs, with 8 in 10 stating that they feel companies should do more to support communities. For Coca-Cola this means both supporting key causes as well as using its voice to raise awareness.  The company has adapted www.livepositively.ca to help show Canadians easy ways of getting involved in their communities.

"At Coca-Cola, we are firm believers that we can accomplish far more working with others than working alone, says Shane Grant, Vice President, Marketing at Coca-Cola Canada.   "It's our hope that by profiling the people who are making a positive difference in communities across Canada we will inspire and enable more Canadians to join our efforts. Our partners are achieving tremendous results but they need help in order to reach more people in more communities."

Coca-Cola's commitments include a donation of $2 million over five years (with an additional $1 million donation in 2012) to WWF towards Arctic conservation, $10 million over 10 years to ParticipACTION to encourage teens to get active and through Minute Maid juice collaborating with Breakfast Clubs of Canada to help over 119,000 children start their day with a complete breakfast.

Additional Survey Results
The Coca-Cola Live Positively survey found that Canadians are more likely to get behind community-based programs if they know their donation will make a difference.  In particular:

• Three-quarters (75 per cent) of Canadians surveyed would likely contribute more if they knew they could personally make a difference.
  
  
• Nearly 7 in 10 (65 per cent) Canadians surveyed say making community-based programs easier to support would encourage their involvement.
  
  
• More than 8 in 10 (81 per cent) Canadians surveyed say they'd likely get more involved in community-based programs, if they knew it would positively impact their own community.

About Coca-Cola Canada and Live Positively
Coca-Cola Canada operates in all ten provinces, employing 6,300 people in more than 50 facilities, including seven production facilities, across Canada. We offer a wide variety of non-alcoholic brands; these beverages include sparkling soft drinks, still waters, juices and fruit beverages, sports drinks, energy drinks, coffees and ready-to-drink teas. We're proud to offer some of the most popular brands in Canada including Coca-Cola®, Diet Coke®, Coke Zero®, Sprite®, Fanta®, Nestea®, PowerAde®, Minute Maid®, Dasani® and vitaminwater®. Coca-Cola in Canada is represented by Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada and Coca-Cola Ltd. Live Positively is Coca-Cola's commitment to making a positive difference in the world by redesigning the way -the company works and lives so that sustainability is a part of everything it does. Learn more at www.livepositively.ca and show your support on Twitter by using #livepositively.

About ParticipACTION
ParticipACTION is the national voice of physical activity and sport participation in Canada. As a national not-for-profit organization solely dedicated to inspiring and supporting healthy and active living for Canadians, it works with its partners, which include sport, physical activity, recreation organizations, government and corporate sponsors, to inspire and support Canadians to move more. For more information, visit www.participACTION.com.

About Breakfast Clubs of Canada
Breakfast Clubs of Canada is a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing services and funding to school breakfast programs. The organization does this with the help of individual and corporate partners, all committed to the cause of feeding our children's future. Breakfast Clubs of Canada serves -more than 18 million breakfasts annually to children in 1,170 schools across Canada. Learn more at www.breakfastclubscanada.org.

About the World Wildlife Fund
WWF is creating solutions to the most serious conservation challenges facing our planet, helping people and nature thrive. wwf.ca

About the Canadian Survey
From January 27th, to January 30th, 2012, an online survey was conducted among a sample of 1,001 Canadian adults 18 years plus, who are Angus Reid Forum panel members. The Angus Reid Forum is owned and operated by Vision Critical. Individuals were sampled according to Census data to be representative of the Canadian national adult population. The full dataset has been statistically weighted according to the most current gender, age, region, education (and in Quebec, language) Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. The margin of error is ±3.1%, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

Video with caption: "Video: See how Coca-Cola and ParticipACTION are working together to ensure all teens have access to physical activity programs in their community. ". Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0l0MyNZsG8

Video with caption: "Video: See how Coca-Cola and Breakfast Clubs of Canada are working together to help ensure Canadian children start their day with breakfast, including Minute Maid 100% Fruit Juices.". Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0huI3oVbyo

Video with caption: "Video: See how Coca-Cola and WWF are working together to help ensure polar bears have a place to call home.". Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fCsQUBqIx8

Catherine Flint
Harbinger
416-960-5100 x.226 / [email protected]