July 1, 2010

2010 Top OPS Awards: Independent Community Service Award: Rainbow Communications

Perusing these pages you’ll find numerous examples of cable doing good. There are large MSOs who can and do devote millions of dollars, countless volunteer hours and in-kind services to good causes. Mid-size and small operators do yeoman’s work, too. But as they say in boxing, pound for pound, Rainbow Communications may be cable’s best giver.

Located in the NE corner of Kansas and serving 4,500 subs, Rainbow does as much good work for its communities as systems three and four times its size.

Many cable outlets have large staffs to coordinate their charitable efforts. Rainbow has a staff, too — its name is Hallee Edwards. She was hired a year ago for the newly created position to handle the entire Rainbow community portfolio. "It’s all me," she says with a mix of pride and determination.

Edwards serves on numerous local boards and chambers of commerce in this largely rural area. That means Rainbow and she help with a slew of fundraisers, garage sales, barbecues and golf tournaments, plus mixers for local businesses. "We do a little bit of everything with the boards and chambers, including attending as many events as possible," she says. Rainbow either sponsors events like fairs and golf tournaments, has a booth at them or provides entertainment for kids, she says.

Then there’s the bevy of fairs and floats at local parades, including Hiawatha’s Halloween parade, which at 90 years, claims to be the country’s oldest. "For small communities, we have a lot of events," Edwards adds, noting these gatherings are part of what makes small town living enjoyable.

Last winter Rainbow sent more than 1,000 pounds of holiday gifts to local soldiers deployed for one year in the Middle East. Rainbow urged the community to donate gifts and the cable provider packaged and shipped the goodies. "And they got there in time," Edwards tells us. "One of the soldiers is the husband of one of our staffers and he relayed that message to us. That was really, really fun. The community did a great job donating gifts."

Why does Rainbow, which did not seek out our award, do so much community service? As in many companies, it comes from the top. In this case it’s GM James Lednicky and Assistant GM Jason Smith. "We care about our small rural communities, and they’re getting smaller," Edwards says. "This is a great way to encourage our communities and see where we can help. If nobody’s working to build the community, the community won’t last. We all enjoy living in our small towns and we don’t want them to go away."

"We tend to think of the big fish in cable," says ACA COO Rob Shema. "[Rainbow] is the big cable fish in a small pond." In the world of northeast Kansas, Rainbow is known for having a big heart. Not a bad thing for a cable operator, or anyone, to be known for.

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