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FORD SORRY FOR DONATION
CURRY COASTAL PILOT
Published: August 28, 2002
The regional manager of Ford Motor Co. sales met with Brookings-Harbor officials Tuesday to apologize for a $5 million contribution the firm made to the Audubon Society.
"We thought we were putting money toward bird watching," said Larry Gregorson, head of Ford's sales division in the Pacific Northwest. "We ended up making a contribution that was not considerate of our base of customers."
The session with Gregorson was organized by Les Walker, owner of the Brookings-Harbor Ford dealership, and Bill Ferry, spokesman for the Rural Resources Alliance, which is being organized among the timber, farming and fishing industries.
Attending were nearly 20 representatives of the Port of Brookings Harbor, Brookings-Harbor Chamber of Commerce, City of Brookings and a few fishermen and farmers.
When Port Manager Russ Crabtree said he knew of five commercial fishermen who planned to switch from Ford trucks to other brands, Gregorson acknowledged the problem.
"We know we made a mistake, and we're owning up to that," he said. "We're trying to repair the damage and we don't want it to happen again."
Gregorson told them the controversial donation from the company's Ford Fund provoked an outcry from Ford's customers in the natural resource industries. That, in turn, has resulted in major changes in the way the firm considers donations in the future.
"You who use Ford trucks are the backbone of our base of customers," Gregorson said. "To have done something that offended our customers was unacceptable."
Instead of dwelling on the Audubon donation, he pointed instead to contributions the Ford Fund does make to rural-based programs, including Future Farmers of America for high school youth, a program called Provider Pals educating urban youth about natural resource industries, and Ford Country Scholars to provide college scholarships in rural areas of 11 states.
In the wake of the contribution, Gregorson said the sales division is now involved in decisions on Ford Fund contributions, relying in turn on information from dealers.
Local officials told Gregorson about what they called the ongoing attack on natural resource industries by some environmental groups like the Audubon Society.
Transferred last March from Philadelphia to Seattle, Gregorson told them "the whole natural resource thing is not big in the media in the Northeast or the Midwest. ... Until you get to the Northwest, you really don't understand the problem."
And, he warned, Ford has to be careful about alienating other customers with its donations or positions.
"The same groups attacking you are attacking us," he explained. "It's why we look primarily at education. It's the root of the problem; it's lack of understanding and lack of communication that cause the problem."
Walker praised Gregorson for coming to Brookings and urged area residents to spend less energy on small local arguments so that they have more resources for the larger lobbying effort that is necessary. "If we just take this little group here, we've got a start."
"The best thing you can do is keep me apprised," Gregorson told the group. "Your view needs to be brought up and it needs to be counted."