Spokane Hoopfest

"Manager's Corner - from Scott Jones, CEO
Part of our Fidelity culture is that we encourage our teammates to give back to their communities as often as they can. One of those events that a number of us at Fidelity have volunteered for is Hoopfest, the largest 3 on 3 basketball tournament in the world, held the last weekend in June in Spokane. Yes, the largest in the world! Ben Lyman and I are on the Site team, which consists of over 200 people that build the 40 block site on the streets of downtown Spokane on Friday night. Forklift drivers drop the basket structures with the Court Sponsor's name on the backboard in the exact spot on the map. Our crews put the pads around the structure and set up a table, chair, and trash can at each court for the weekend use of the court monitor. Other volunteers are laying down the tape on the street that surrounds the basket with the out of bounds and free throw lines. It is pretty amazing how working together we can 'build' 458 basketball courts in about 4 hours on Friday night. By 8 AM Saturday morning the 7046 teams and 27,876 players have started to arrive downtown to play over 14,000 games of basketball, watched by over 250,000 spectators over two days on the 458 courts that we had set up on Friday night. Craig Jones, Tom Schweifler, and Chris Carothers are three of the over 90 court marshals who supervise the over 600 court monitors who make sure the games are starting on time and the players are following the rules. Craig, Tom, and Chris are busy all weekend making sure things are running as smoothly as possible. Patti MacDougall manages a group of volunteers who get water and food to the court monitors."

Hoopfest cont.

"When the last games are over around 4 PM on Sunday, Ben and I meet our crews and we begin the task of tearing down everything that we had built on Friday night. The baskets structures, pads, tables, and chairs all get put back in storage for next year. All the tape on the streets is removed. And Riverfront Park is left as clean as we found it. By 10 pm, people are driving on the streets of downtown Spokane where 7 hours earlier there were hundreds of thousands of people of all ages enjoying street basketball on a sunny weekend in June in Downtown Spokane. Hoopfest is a big economic boost for Spokane and Hoopfest donates a portion of what it makes to a number of non profit organizations including Washington Special Olympics. Hoopfest would not happen without the thousands of volunteers. Craig, Tom, Chris, Ben, Patti and I are all proud to be a part of this great event."

Hoopfest Employee Spotlight!

"In this photo: Chris Carothers, Tom Schweifler, Craig Jones

Employee Spotlight - Chris Carothers Chris has hung his hat at Fidelity Associates since May 2002. He has worked in the Personal Lines department the entire time as an account manager. His goal is to provide great customer service to every customer he comes in contact with. Prior to his time with Fidelity he spent 12 years working for Safeco Insurance in various positions including personal lines underwriter.Chris feels that every day at Fidelity is a new experience. 'No matter how long a person is involved in the insurance industry, there are always new and interesting situations that pop up. It's these kind of situations that keep you on your toes.' Chris has to stay on his toes to keep up with his busy schedule. His free time is spent in many different pursuits. He just completed his 19th year as a Spokane Hoopfest Volunteer. Hoopfest just held its 22nd annual 3-on-3 basketball tournament in downtown Spokane. He has been a high school wrestling official for 20 years. He has also volunteered his time and energies for 12 years as a Boy Scout leader. His most recent volunteer adventure is with the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System as a Master Composter. He volunteers his time teaching principles of recycling through composting. His knowledge of composting lends itself very nicely to his love of vegetable gardening. He is also a certified beekeeper and raises chickens."