"Strolling through the grounds of the rustic, landmark Loretto, Ky., distillery where the faint scent of bourbon perfumed the spring air, Maker's Mark president and CEO Bill Samuels had two words to sum up the partnership between his company, Keeneland and the Markey Cancer Foundation: "Pay back."
For the second year, the three organizations will be working together to raise funds for cancer research by marketing a specially labeled Maker's Mark bottle commemorating the "most beloved" teams in the history of University of Kentucky basketball. Samuels was on his way to a special "dipping" that would leave 18,000 Maker's Mark bottles topped with the brand's distinctive wax seal — in Wildcat Blue instead of the trademark red. He was overseeing preparations to continue the unique campaign that began in 2006 after a visit to the office of the president of the University of Kentucky.
"(Keeneland President) Nick Nicholson and I said, 'Let's go see Lee Todd and see if there's an area where we can use the money and he can use the publicity for a cause that's very important to him,'" recalled Samuels. "We weren't in his office more than two minutes, and he said, 'Cancer research — one of the "Kentucky uglies" that's being ignored. And I feel it's as much our responsibility at the university as it is anybody's to begin to deal with this; to take Kentucky off the top spot on the cancer list.'"
Last year's sales of autographed, numbered limited edition bottles honoring the legendary "Rupp's Runts" UK basketball team raised a total of $1 million. As a result, many Kentuckians are now participating in clinical cancer research projects. The goal is to raise an additional $1 million in each of the next two years. The campaign culminates in 2008, the distillery's 50th anniversary.
On this day, two members of Rick Pitino's 1992 "Unforgettables" — Richie Farmer and Deron Feldhaus — had donned protective gloves and safety glasses to dip the bottles that would soon bear labels featuring their autographs as well as those of fellow players John Pelphry and Sean Woods. The specially labeled bottle, priced at about $40 (if retailers take their normal markup), will be available at liquor retailers statewide on April 6, opening day of Keeneland's spring 2007 race meet. If all sell, Maker's Mark will contribute the proceeds — approximately $200,000 — to UK, where president Lee Todd and the Markey Cancer Center Foundation have matching donations from center benefactors as well as matching funds from the state tobacco tax that will bring the total to $1 million.
The funds come with no strings attached. "We didn't want to earmark it; we wanted them to decide," Samuels explained. "This is all about bench research. This is stuff they know better than we do. It's play money, but we know they're playing with the right stuff."
The $1 million raised in 2006 has already gone to support clinical research trials that are now generating analysis reports. Dr. Robert Means, interim director of the Markey Cancer Center, said these dollars impact not only physical health, but the fiscal sort as well. "Research at academic institutions has a multiplier effect in the local economy. The sort of research that this money is going to support is involved in the development of new drugs and the translation of these drugs into the population. It provides the local economy with spinoff companies. And the university is partnering with drug development companies." That research has already produced DB-67, a drug holding promise in the treatment of lung cancer that is now under study. "This is representing Lexington as a place for intellectual property-based business," he said.
Means said the Maker's Mark arrangement is special because of the flexibility it affords. "This is money that is not linked to specific restrictions. We can use it for recruiting faculty, which we have been doing. We can use it for developing our clinical trials database so that we can effectively manage clinical trials and can attract national clinical trials to the University of Kentucky. And it also provides directors of the cancer center the resources to seed good ideas." Means noted that while the standard by which a cancer center is compared to other cancer centers is the amount of money it receives from the National Cancer Institute, those funds are made available only on the basis of what has already been accomplished. "So this is money that, if something is developing that's moving quickly, we can say, 'Okay, we need to focus on this,' and can do so without having to go through an external review process."
And that pay back Samuels mentioned? "Our family goes back to the time when Daniel Boone was here running around," he said. "To my knowledge, we're the earliest distilling family in North America that's still doing it. It goes back 225 years that we've been here in Kentucky making whiskey, and Kentucky's been very good to us. If the people of Kentucky hadn't become big fans of Maker's early on, we'd have gone out of business."
Keeneland president Nick Nicholson views the Maker's Mark campaign as a "truly great example of corporate responsibility — one that leaves the community tangibly better." And Nicholson said through fundraising efforts like the Maker's Mark commemorative bottle, he hopes to evolve Keeneland's giving to UK to unrestricted — "so that Dr. Todd can use it where he feels it's needed each year."
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