Western & Southern CEO talks about keeping Cincinnati's Labor Day weekend tradition alive
CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The countdown is on to the unofficial end of Cincinnati's summer, and, once again, it is going out with a bang.
The Western & Southern / WEBN Fireworks promise to be bigger and better this year. The show nearly fizzled out a few years ago, but one business that understands what Cincinnati is all about, re-lit the fuse.
The regal and sturdy facade at Fourth and Broadway streets reflects a depth that makes it a layer of the Cincinnati bedrock. Like the city it calls home, Western & Southern made its name by working hard.
"For our first 100 years, we had been a home-service company, meaning we had sold and collected business door-to-door," said Western & Southern CEO John Barrett.
Now celebrating 130 years with 2,200 employees downtown, a diversified Western & Southern is still a rock, but one with a warm side. On Labor Day weekend, the warm side gets a little wild as they are the name sponsor of the Western & Southern / WEBN Fireworks.
"If the city is vibrant and robust and successful, people like it. So our crowd has been very involved in all aspects of that," said Barrett.
Barrett says every senior officer at Western & Southern is on the board of at least one charitable organization. Western & Southern started sponsoring the fireworks three years ago. When they got involved, the goal was to keep it going.
Barrett says Western & Southern has six local projects it is devoted to keep going: the MS Walk for multiple sclerosis, Ride Cincinnati, which raises money for cancer research, the Western & Southern Tennis Open that raises money for the Barrett Cancer Center and Children's Hospital, the fireworks tied to the Freestore Foodbank, the Thanksgiving Day Run that helps Ronald McDonald House and the Crib of the Nativity supporting the Salvation Army (that project kicked off in 1939.)
"Our goal is to keep these things going. They don't have to be done by us, but if you want a city that keeps people, that attracts people, you got to do something. It just doesn't happen by accident," Barrett said. "It's fine if they go on without us. It's wonderful if they go on without us, but they got to go on."
It takes a lot to stay afloat for 130 years. Barrett says the charitable work is part of the company's success story.
"It makes us a better company. It has my colleagues involved in the city in a way that most people aren't and it's good for us," he said. "It's the good thing to do."
