Happy Values Day!  This week we held our company-wide celebration of our six core values: Value People, Delight Customers, Embrace Change, Do the Right Thing, Do Things Right, and Passion for Winning. On Wednesday, all of the members of the Wawa family took time out of their days to reflect on our values and personally personally thank their colleagues for going above and beyond in living our values.

If you walked into any of our 572 stores on Values Day, you may have noticed a slew of values-centric activities going on! We had values-inspired contests and giveaways, and every associate was wearing a special edition “I Valued” sticker as part of their uniform for the day. The “I Valued” stickers were our way of keeping our values at the center of the conversation that day, and served as a visual reminder of the important role our values play in fostering the unique company culture we have here at Wawa.

One of the most exciting parts of Values Day occurred at our Store 286 in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania. I traveled to our Sinking Spring store for a special lunch on the road to recognize associates Kevin Gibson and Ioannis Kitixis, for serving as ambassadors of Wawa’s values.

To date we have received thousands of values submissions about our associates living our values, but I was blown away when I read the submissions about both Kevin Gibson and Ioannis Kitixis.  And I was even more impressed when I saw that these value champions had both submitted values stories about each other unbeknownst to the other person!  
So let me tell you a little bit about Kevin and Ioannis.  I was especially moved when I heard that Kevin offered to cut the grass all summer long of a Wawa customer battling cancer, too weak to do so himself. That act is a truly exemplary testament to Kevin’s kindness and commitment to Do The Right Thing.  And I was equally moved when I heard that Ioannis took it upon himself to personally drive hoagies to the house of an elderly customer, after she underwent surgery and was too sick to go out.  To celebrate both Kevin and Ioannis, we had an in-store celebration in their honor and then went out to a special lunch with their friends and family. 

Kevin and Ioannis and the many values champions that work in all of our stores throughout our company continue to inspire us.  Values Day enabled us to celebrate the parts of our culture that make Wawa a place where customers and associates feel like family, and where associates take time out of their busy days to recognize their co-workers. 

Happy Values Day everyone.  Thanks to all of our associates for making our Values Day so successful and carrying on our values each and every day.

‘Till next time…