BIG RIVER TELEPHONE GIVES BACK TO THE COMMUNITY

Cape Girardeau, Missouri (May 9, 2005) – Big River Telephone, a local telecommunications provider headquartered in Cape Girardeau, today announced their success in this year’s WalkAmerica campaign for the March of Dimes. 

For the past two months, Big River Telephone has sponsored a corporate team made up of their very own employees.  During that time, employees of Big River held in-house raffles, hosted breakfasts, arranged auctions, and even had a dunking booth event to raise money for the March of Dimes.  Between March 7 and May 5, Big River’s employees raised $5,129.70, which is the highest amount of money raised by a single team in the region.  Their efforts will be recognized at the regional luncheon later this month.

“Big River is an inspirational team for the babies,” said Ellen Dillon, Executive Director for the March of Dimes.  “Even when we ran out of steam, they never did.”

Big River Telephone employees would like to extend their thanks to the Cape Girardeau Fire Department, Police Department, the Chamber of Commerce, KISS FM and KGMO for allowing their employees to take part in their Dunk for Dimes event on May 2nd, which helped them surpass the $5,000 mark.  Big River Telephone would also like to acknowledge everyone who donated items to their in-house auctions, including Outback Steakhouse, Target, Rhodes, Schnucks, Applebee’s, Purcell Tire, Trendsetters, Jackson Fast Lube, Wehrenberg Cape West 14 Cine, Town Plaza Cinema, Buffalo Wild Wings, Cathy Borst, Carla Naeger, Hollywood Video, Ruby Tuesdays, BG’s, Sun and Tan, Pilot House, Tans-R-Us, and Eugene’s.

“Big River Telephone has donated to the March of Dimes for the past 10 years, but we’ve never had an outcome as extraordinary as this year’s,” said Jody Simmons, Team Captain for Big River Telephone.  “Not only did we raise over $5,000 for a wonderful organization, but we got all our employees more involved in the community, which I think is very admirable.”

Big River Telephone brings network service solutions to Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, and Western Kentucky.  The Cape-based company operates an advanced telecommunications network that delivers local, long distance, data, and internet services to the region.  Big River Telephone is a privately held company headquartered in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. For more information, call (800) 455-1608 or visit www.bigrivertelephone.com.