Guiding Eyes Receives PepsiCo’s Harvey C. Russell Global Diversity & Inclusion Award

Westchester County, N.Y. (May 19, 2011) – PepsiCo recently awarded its most prestigious recognition of diversity and inclusion to Guiding Eyes for the Blind, an internationally-accredited nonprofit guide-dog school headquartered in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.

PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra K. Nooyi presented the 2011 Harvey C. Russell Global Diversity & Inclusion Award during a ceremony at PepsiCo’s global headquarters in Purchase, N.Y. The Harvey C. Russell award was created as part of the Chairman’s Award to honor exceptional advances in diversity and inclusion. It is named after a former Pepsi-Cola executive who in 1962 broke corporate America’s color barrier to become the first African-American vice president of a major international corporation.

The Harvey C. Russell Award is traditionally reserved for PepsiCo employees, though infrequently is bestowed upon the company’s external partners. Guiding Eyes collaborates with PepsiCo in several areas, including assistive technology, volunteerism, consumer marketing, workplace inclusion and product packaging and labeling.  

“Over the past two years, PepsiCo and Guiding Eyes for the Blind have developed a unique partnership based upon mutually shared values encompassing community, workplace, and the marketplace,” Massimo d'Amore, CEO of PepsiCo Global Beverages, said in speaking of PepsiCo’s recognition of Guiding Eyes. “Guiding Eyes for the Blind has truly made a sustainable, positive impact at PepsiCo. It is helping PepsiCo facilitate efforts to include people with different abilities in every aspect of our organization.”

PepsiCo praised Guiding Eyes for its significant leadership in gifting empowerment and independence for people with different abilities. The nonprofit helps to enrich the lives of the blind and visually impaired by providing the freedom to travel safely and confidently with a superbly trained guide dog. In turn, this freedom helps to breed independence, dignity and expanded horizons of opportunity.

Four PepsiCo employees – Janis Herzig, London Nielsen, Andrea Grasso and Denise Fendrich – also received awards for their work with the nonprofit.

“Our relationship has created a more enriching environment for our employees, and new-found energy and excitement by allowing us to live Performance with Purpose every day,” d’Amore noted. “Nearly every PepsiCo function is involved in some way with Guiding Eyes.” 

Guiding Eyes President and CEO Bill Badger, alongside Lisa Deutsch, Vice President for Marketing and Development, presented PepsiCo with a bronze guide-dog statuette in appreciation of the recognition. Both PepsiCo and Guiding Eyes remarked that the partnership provided a “powerful” model for delivering innovative and engaging programs. 

“Our relationship with PepsiCo is unique and offers the nonprofit and corporate sectors a new partnership model," Deutsch said.  "PepsiCo has leveraged Guiding Eyes’ expertise and reached out to our stakeholders to strengthen its leadership in the areas of inclusion and diversity.  Guiding Eyes has been fortunate to have opportunities to avail itself of PepsiCo's expertise and its most valuable resource – its outstanding employees.  This award represents both of our organization's shared values and commitment to people of all abilities."

Guiding Eyes for the Blind is located at 611 Granite Springs Road in Yorktown Heights, NY. They can be reached at 914.245.4024 or by visiting www.guidingeyes.org.

About Guiding Eyes for the Blind

Guiding Eyes for the Blind (www.guidingeyes.org), an internationally accredited nonprofit guide dog school, was founded in 1954 to enrich the lives of blind and visually impaired men and women by providing them with the freedom to travel safely, thereby assuring greater independence, dignity and expanded horizons of opportunity. Since that time, Guiding Eyes has become one of the foremost guide dog schools in the world, graduating more than 7,000 guide dog teams. It provides superbly bred Guiding Eyes dogs, professional training and follow-up support services to students at no cost to them and depends on contributions to fulfill its mission. The comprehensive cost of breeding, raising, preparing, training, and supporting a Guiding Eyes team is $45,000. Guiding Eyes for the Blind's Headquarters and Training Center is located in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and the Canine Development Center is in Patterson, N.Y.