Eats will be pink at Jamie Farr this year

7/23/2004

Don't look for Pink Panther under glass.

But area restaurant menus will feature pink menu items during the upcoming Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic as part of a promotion by the professional golf tournament's main corporate sponsor.

"We were looking for a way to extend the tournament further into the community, to get more people involved, and increase the excitement," explained tournament chairman Sheree Bargabos, who is president of exterior systems at OC.

So the firm decided on a promotion linked to pink, which is its unofficial corporate color owing to a variety of factors. Building insulation produced by OC is pink, the company holds a trademark on the color, and the Pink Panther cartoon character has been used in advertising and promotions for years.

Details of the promotion, dubbed Painting the Town Pink, are to be released at a news conference this afternoon at OC headquarters on the downtown riverfront.

The Fortune 500 company, which is Toledo's third largest corporation, has asked participating restaurants to donate 10 to 20 percent of the proceeds from sale of special pink menu items to children's charities that are the main beneficiaries of the Ladies Professional Golf Association tournament Aug. 5-8 at Highland Meadow Golf Club in Sylvania. In 2003, the tournament raised $250,000. Sponsors hope to double that this year.

A dozen restaurants have agreed to participate.

Featured items at Madison's on Main, Sylvania, will include strawberries in pink chocolate, raspberry chicken, and smoked salmon. Staff members offered a host of other suggestions that didn't make the cut, including pink-died mashed potatoes.

Restaurant manager David Ritchie views association with the tournament as good for business. "It's also good for employee morale because it gives them something different to do," he said.

Officials from OC, which has been involved in tournament sponsorship for 20 years, although it is the main sponsor this year, regard the promotion and the tournament overall as good for business. It provides an opportunity to entertain customers and vendors. Broadcast coverage, on ESPN2 this year, provides exposure, they said.