Local Sonic Partners With College Grant Program
(Press Release 11-09-09)
Hank Mooney, Office of Public Information

Wilburton Sonic Drive–In Manager Danny Womack recently donated Sonic Community First Value Cards to Eastern Oklahoma State College GEAR UP for a Brighter Tomorrow grant project. Womack provided the cards as incentives to the grant’s cohort students. The cards are valued at $15,000.

“I believe in the objectives of the GEAR UP grant, and know it’s a great program to associate with,” Womack said. “I always try to support the youth groups and organizations in the community whenever possible.”

For more than 50 years, Sonic has built a dominant position in the drive–in restaurant business. Today, Sonic is the largest chain of drive–in restaurants in America. Sonic started as a hamburger and root beer stand in 1953 in Shawnee, Oklahoma, called Top Hat Drive–In, and then changed its name to Sonic in 1959. The first drive–in to adopt the Sonic name is still serving customers in Stillwater, Oklahoma. More than a million customers eat at Sonic every day.

The Eastern Oklahoma State College GEAR UP project is designed to meet the needs of low–income, underserved and underrepresented students in 23 geographically isolated, rural schools in five southeastern Oklahoma counties, within the Choctaw Nation. Eastern Oklahoma State received a $6.7 million federal grant and is in its fourth year of implementation.

The GEAR UP grant currently serves 9th and/or 10th grade students at Antlers, Bokoshe, Buffalo Valley, Canadian, Clayton, Crowder, Haileyville, Hartshorne, Indianola, Keota, Kiowa, LeFlore, McAlester, McCurtain, Moyers, Panola, Pittsburg, Quinton, Rattan, Red Oak, Talihina, Whitesboro, and Wilburton.

Caption info: Wilburton Sonic Owner Joe Moore and Manager Danny Womack present Sonic Community First Value Cards to GEAR UP Project Director Linda Morgan.