Wawa, PA (April 13, 2010) – Wawa Inc. today announced a celebration in commemoration of famed Phillies announcer, Harry Kalas, who passed away just one year ago.  The event will take place during one of Wawa’s Snappy Hours, associate appreciation events that occur throughout the year.

On Tuesday April 13th, at 11:30AM  Philadelphia Phillies Pitcher, Jamie Moyer and Kalas family members will join Wawa executives and associates for this festive, baseball themed picnic in Kalas’s honor, at Wawa’s corporate headquarters located at 260 West Baltimore Pike in Media.  During the celebration, Wawa will present a $15,000 check to Jamie Moyer and Kalas family member, Julie Vanwey, to be donated to the Moyer Foundation’s Camp Erin, a charity designated by the Kalas family.  Camp Erin, created and funded by The Moyer Foundation, is the nation’s largest bereavement camp in the country for children and teens ages 6-17 who have experienced the death of someone close to them. There are 36 camps in 23 states, including Camp Erin- Philadelphia.

In June of last year, Wawa began exclusively selling a book honoring the life of Kalas, entitled Remembering Harry Kalas: Wonderful Stories from Friends Celebrating a Great life.   This was the first commemorative, hard-back book Wawa ever sold in stores in the company’s history.  To honor Kalas’s memory, Wawa donated $10,000 from the proceeds of the sale of the book to Camp Erin and made an additional donation of $5,000 to the Moyer Foundation to use in conjunction with Camp Erin.

“We were honored to exclusively sell this tribute to Harry Kalas, a man who we not only all admired and adored, but who was a loyal customer and friend to Wawa for many years,” said Howard Stoeckel, Wawa’s President and CEO. “His memory and legacy will always live on inside of our stores as well as in the hearts of all who knew and listened to him, and we feel privileged to be able to help share his memory with the greater Philadelphia community.”

“Like baseball, Wawa is a company with a rich history and many great traditions. One of our traditions and corporate values is being a good neighbor and giving back to the communities we serve,” said Stoeckel.  “Wawa salutes the Phillies and the Kalas family! To field a winning club takes an exceptional amount of team effort.  Great teams are carefully built, player by player and program by program.  Achieving a winning season and a championship means years of hard work and dedication.  These values – hard work, dedication, team work – our Wawa team knows well; we’ve been committed to our hometown region here in Philadelphia for more than 45 years and we are honored to have played a role in celebrating the life and memory of hometown hero Harry Kalas. “

About Wawa, Inc.
Wawa, Inc., a privately held company, began in 1803 as an iron foundry in New Jersey.  Toward the end of the 19th Century, owner George Wood took an interest in dairy farming and the family began a small processing plant in Wawa, Pa, in 1902.  The milk business was a huge success, due to its quality, cleanliness and “certified” process.  As home delivery of milk declined in the early 1960’s, Grahame Wood, George’s grandson, opened the first Wawa Food Market in 1964 as an outlet for dairy products.  Today, Wawa operates more than 560 stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.
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