With a continued interest in community partnership, MAPFRE Stadium – home of Major League Soccer’s Columbus Crew SC – joined the Ohio Public Private Partnership (OP3), an initiative of the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS), to enhance the organization’s ability to support the Central Ohio Area in the event of a wide-scale public emergency.
“MAPFRE Stadium provides safety and security for hundreds of thousands of guests each year, ranging from world class soccer events to world class musical acts” said Andy Loughnane, President of Business Operations. “As part of our ongoing effort to expand capabilities while simultaneously supporting the community, we are proud to enter into an innovative partnership with OP3 that will continue to establish MAPFRE Stadium as a leader within the sports and entertainment industry.”
The OP3 program is comprised of public and private sector representatives who share a vision of building the program through a grass-roots strategy, determining the needs of private sector entities during a crisis event, providing member organizations with current information and situational awareness on disaster prevention, planning, response and recovery efforts, and opportunities to guide critical decisions, communications, capabilities and resources that best support Ohio’s citizens.
“I am thrilled with the commitment of MAPFRE Stadium to the Ohio Public Private Partnership,” said ODPS Director John Born. “Their involvement, along with that of more than 200 other OP3 partners, illustrates how collaboration is an essential component in our state’s comprehensive public safety effort.”
Examples of recent program successes include:
- During the June 2014 Gallipolis Water Main Break, ODPS staff reached out to local Kroger and Walmart stores to ensure inventory was sufficiently stocked with bottled water to support the needs of the impacted community. The Proctor & Gamble Company offered to send the Tide Loads of Hope truck to Gallipolis to clean clothes for their citizens; and
- The Toledo Water Incident in August 2014, in which OP3 received more than 31,000 gallons of bottled water from corporate partners, including Anheuser Busch, CVS, Kroger, Walgreens and Walmart. These contributions aided nearly 500,000 impacted citizens. OP3 provided partners with situational awareness that assisted decision making on inventory shipments to point of sale locations so that water was readily available to the public.
