Why should a local business jump at the opportunity to sponsor a local theater?
“When you look at what’s important to businesspeople, as to why they stay or locate to somewhere — quality of life, I would argue, is a bigger incentive than taxes,” said McDonald’s restaurant franchisee Joe Graviss. “Business people will go where the enjoyment of life is. The theater is a big part of life in our communities.”
That is the first point to take away from a conversation with Graviss about why his business chooses to sponsor theater in Woodford County. But it is not the only point.
Graviss’ McDonald’s restaurants are currently sponsoring the Woodford Theatre production of Driving Miss Daisy, directed by former Woodford theater executive/artistic director Beth Kirchner.
“Before Driving Miss Daisy, we sponsored the Depression-era play Smoke On the Mountain. We’ve been going to Woodford Theatre for many years as patrons and thoroughly enjoy the professionalism and quality of their work,” Graviss said.
Woodford Theatre regulars will be looking forward to Beth Kirchner’s involvement in Driving Miss Daisy. While the production is familiar to many due to the film version starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman, it’s a great treat to see something so well-loved brought to life with living, breathing actors within mere feet of the audience.
Graviss mentioned Beth Kirchner as the person who initially floated the notion to him of sponsoring individual shows at the theater.
“We had become Arts Angels (contributors) and helped with seating at the theater,” he said. “Beth asked if we could help them with some contributions to fund their programs. We thought they did such great work and had such great crowds coming. The community embraced them. We wanted to support something that the community supported.”
That reflects the second point that Graviss stresses about why his business sponsors theater.
“Community service is a requirement of business executives who do business with the public. We couldn't exist without the public, so anything we can do that makes our communities more enjoyable, more attractive, more fun, we want to try to do that.”
Graviss’ restaurants also help out with Little League activities, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and Graviss works with the Council on Post-Secondary Education. It doesn’t take much time in a conversation with him to see that the notion of giving back is actually folded into a larger sense of giving to people overall — and that certainly includes his employees.
“We have more than 500 employees in eight McDonald’s restaurants in central Kentucky,” he said. “We see it as an opportunity to help people be better people and better businesspeople. We try to provide them with skills that they can use at home and work to improve their quality of life, instead of just trying to run a business to make money. We try to run a business to give back.”
To that end, Graviss provides his employees with access to the same health-care benefits that he and his family have, with a minimum of cost to the employee.
“We see that as another aspect of giving back,” he said. “It’s not just giving money to sponsor a play; it’s time and investment into people’s lives and livelihoods. If they don’t work in one of my restaurants for years, we hope that wherever they go, they end up being better people and better businesspeople.”
This overall philosophy of helping others pairs with the wisdom of seeing that businesspeople go where they will enjoy life. Graviss runs his business with that in mind.
“Everybody remembers their first boss,” he said. “Everybody remembers their best boss. We hope to be one or the other.”
Woodford Theatre’s Driving Miss Daisy runs February 1,2,8,9,15,16 at 8 p.m. and February 3,10,17 at 2 p.m. Get ticket info at www.woodfordtheatre.com or by calling the box office at (859) 873-0648.