Michigan Buick Dealers Hear Buick Teams up with NCAA to Share Community Inspirations

March 25, 2011 - PRLog -- DETROIT, M.I. – Michigan Buick dealers may be interested to know how Buick is giving back to the community. There are many stories about victories and champions told about teams and their games, but stories about what those team members did after they played may be left in the shadows. Buick along with NCAA, Turner Sports and CBS Sports have partnered to create a campaign to share these inspiring stories of former student-athletes with the community.
Together these organizations will create the Buick Human Highlight Reel, which will tell the true stories of the lessons, involvement, reach and connection that has been made by former student-athletes.
According to the NCAA, some of the stories and former student-athletes that will be featured include:
•   Dr. Gabe Lewullis, who scored the winning shot for Princeton University against defending champion UCLA in 1996. Lewullis is a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon and spokesperson for Our Future Stars, a non-profit organization that works to get corporate funding for high school sports programs at risk of being shut down due to budget cuts.
•   Cullen Jones, who swam for North Carolina State University and became the second African-American in history to win an Olympic Gold medal in the sport. Jones works with the USA Swimming Foundation’s Make a Splash program to teach minority children how to swim.
•   Dr. Denton Cooley, who played basketball at the University of Texas – Austin, and is a pioneer in open-heart surgery.  Cooley played in the first NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament in 1939 and went on to perform the first successful heart transplant in the United States in 1968 and implanted the first totally artificial heart in a human in 1969.
The Buick Human Highlight Reel is planned to launch at the start of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. Other ways Buick will be reaching out with this new campaign include an archive of the complete stories available at www.ncaa.com/buick,which will include videos from filmmakers associated with a creative social network called Zooppa; a 30-minute television show with some Human Highlight Reel stories will air before the 2011 NCAA Men’s Final Four semifinal games on April 2; and, finally, a few selected video profiles will air during preliminary-round tournament coverage on truTV.
Buick recently announced the Buick Achiever Scholarship Program, as some Michigan Buick dealers may know, and this new partnership will be another way for Buick to help guide the next generation of leaders by inspiring with stories of community involvement.
“The Buick Human Highlight Reel shows the continued leadership and dedication that student-athletes have once they complete their academic programs and become active in their communities or involved with broad initiatives that have a positive influence on the lives of others,” said Peter Davis, NCAA director of championships and alliances in a NCAA press release.
The Buick Highlight Reel will also include a section on its website called “Tell Us Your Story”, where fans may share their stories about how NCAA former student-athletes may have helped them or affected them in some way.
Michigan Buick dealers may be proud to be a part of a corporation that wants to share the positive influencers who shape the community as Buick steps in laying a strong foundation to keep these stories alive.
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