Worldwide Volunteer Week Profiles
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Feature
Sun Worldwide Volunteer Week 2004: Sun's Shining Stars During the past decade, Sun employees have shown a commitment to corporate volunteerism within the communities that Sun conducts business in around the globe. Since 1995, Sun employees have donated over 200,000 volunteer hours to a variety of projects during Worldwide Volunteer Week and throughout the year. This total donation of time during the last decade is valued at over $3,000,000. Each day during Worldwide Volunteer Week 2004, a different Sun employee, that has been an extraordinary volunteer and given hundreds of hours of their personal time to organizations that they are passionate about, will be profiled on the Web. Read the Web daily for profiles on Sun employees who are following their passion and utilizing their talents to make significant contributions to the community. Friday, April 23, 2004 Jamie Ridge Jamie grew up in a small town with a family who constantly stressed the importance of education, especially literacy. That had a profound impact on Jamie, who went on to earn two college degrees. Jamie felt strongly that he needed to give back to the community. Since Jamie is a huge advocate of literacy and continuing education, he decided to become involved with the Houston READ Commission. The Commission is the largest literacy organization in the U.S. Its mission is "to help meet the needs of the more than one million adult Houstonians who lack the basic skills to get and keep jobs, help their children succeed in school and participate fully in society."
During the past two years, Jamie has been able to pursue his personal passion for education by using the technical skills he's developed at Sun to help update and streamline the organizationÕs IT environment. At the request of the Executive Director of READ, Jamie put together a gap analysis and full plan on updating, consolidating, and reinforcing their IT systems. After Jamie implemented the new environment, the Commission realized more than $30,000 in savings a year, money that can be redirected into literacy programs. Jamie is now working on a major Java Enterprise System portal project in order to address the Houston READ Commission's need to have even greater flexibility in serving the community. Thanks to Sun's support of Jamie and his efforts, the Commission is in a far better position to fulfill its mission of preparing people for a better life through literacy. Thursday, April 22, 2004 Robin Davidge In more than 14 years at Sun, Robin Davidge has participated in dozens of volunteer projects to benefit many of her less fortunate fellow Canadians. Robin takes to heart one of Sun Canadas values, "Balancing the needs of the Individual," and believes that working in the community truly puts some "balance back in your life." The reason Robin volunteers is simple: she likes to help other people in need. Robin enjoys knowing that she has brightened someone's day, even in a small way.
Robins contributions to the community during her time at Sun have been enormous. For example, she has raised money for the Canadian Cancer Society by creating gift baskets that were auctioned at a charity event, and by selling daffodils to Sun employees to benefit the Cancer Society. For the past four years, she has led Sun's efforts around The Children's Breakfast Club a breakfast program for low-income school-age children. She has also worked with a team of Sun employees to purchase food, prepare and serve a hot dinner to 70 - 100 homeless people at Evangel Hall; and supported the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Ontario as one of 30 Sun employees to ride a bicycle made for 30 through the streets of Markham on a fund-raising effort. Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Sally Lovato 100% of the Workplace Resource team from Sun's Broomfield campus volunteer for Habitat for Humanity projects during Worldwide Volunteer Week. They invite members from other groups, as well as four contractors to round out the numbers. Last year the group of 15 painted a multi-unit apartment block. The year before they did a full day of construction on a single family home. Single moms, the elderly and low income families now live in these dwellings. "One of the biggest impact Sun can have is our exposure in the community," said Sally, who coordinates the volunteers. "These efforts impact the environment. The Sun sponsorship and support is fantastic." Sally says all the members of the group have become close friends and share a sense of self-esteem and accomplishment. "Everyone is very excited about what we do. We see directors and managers shoveling sand to make cement while others hang sheet rock and paint. It helps us work well together back in the office." Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Betty Zambetti Betty volunteers wherever and whenever she has the opportunity. Since joining Sun six years ago she has participated in many projects, including Family Giving Tree, Second Harvest Food Bank, Safe Harbor Shelter, Villa Montalvo County Park restoration, Camp Costanoan developmental disability camp, Good Samaritans and the MS Walkathon. For this years WWVW activity she is helping with a Beach Clean up. "Saying no is not something in my vocabulary," said Betty. "Volunteering is something everyone should try at least once in their life. You get some really nice warm fuzzy feelings -- it's selfish really." Betty recalls the time she joined other Sun volunteers to bring Halloween fun to the kids at the Sobrato Family Living Center next door to the Sun campus in Santa Clara. The children in the shelter were really excited by the costume contest and cookie decorating that volunteers provided supplies for. She admits to feeling apprehensive before visiting another shelter where she helped serve meals. "I was expecting an icky place, but it was so clean and well organized. I met some really nice, friendly people who were getting their lives back together in there." Betty appreciates Sun's support of Worldwide Volunteer Week: "It makes me think of Sun as a better company" Monday, April 19, 2004
Project Manager, Sun Services Broomfield, Colorado Matt is a 16-year Sun veteran who re-located to Colorado with Sun Services 6 years ago. He's been participating in Volunteer Week for over 10 years -- alternating between Habitat for Humanity, building new homes for low income families, and Neighborhood Partners, a Denver group who remodel existing properties. He relishes Volunteer Week each year as "a great change from the high-tech environment, a chance to get outdoors and do something physical." Matt acknowledges that over the years he's picked up a lot of practical skills. He's now pretty handy with a nail belt and construction tools. He finds it remarkable how many of his fellow volunteers come with little or no practical skills. These are just the folks he tries to recruit each year. Building a staircase might be outside their comfort zone. They leave with a new sense of confidence and accomplishment that carries over to their work life. For Matt, the opportunity to give something back to the community is gratification enough. But at the same time that he's building apartments, he's also building new leadership skills. "At work as a Project Manager I have to inspire and lead people without any formal authority. It's the same challenge I face as a volunteer leader, but in a new environment, a new dimension." Matt feels that it's important that Sun to show the community it cares by sponsoring an annual Volunteer Week. It's an event that gets Matt and his teams of 15 Sun Staff out of the office for the day. "The progress we make in just one day is just amazing, installing cabinets, building a safety railing, repainting a home." Seeing the difference his team makes keeps him coming back year after year. Sunday, April 18, 2004
Lori Schlesinger Last year, residents in Burlington, MA were pleased to see a team of painters sprucing up the old school house on Main Street. When they stopped to thank the workers, they were thrilled to discover that these were not professionals hired by the city, but a team of Sun volunteers. Local newspaper reports highlighted the Sun Worldwide Volunteer team efforts. This recognition and visibility for Sun is something Lori Schlesinger sees every year when she participates in Worldwide Volunteer Week. She's helped clean up the Town Common, installed playground equipment at a local park, and coordinated the donation of over 600 pieces of surplus Sun furniture to local schools. Lori values the support of her manager and the opportunity to take a work day to engage in volunteer activity. She enjoys working with Sun staff she would not otherwise meet. Saturday, April 17, 2004
Nancye Beck Nancye credits her grandmother with teaching her at age eight the importance of "giving back" money and time to the community. It was a lesson she learned well. Last year Nancye calculates her volunteer time totaled an amazing 2,000 hours! This year, she will lead two projects during Sun's 2004 Volunteer Week: a Food Sort for the Second Harvest Food Bank, and an equipment sort for the Resource Area For Teachers. The equipment for the latter is donated by companies across Silicon Valley -- everything from 3-ring binders to tongue depressors. Nancye's team sort these supplies into class resources for local teachers. Nancye's year-round volunteer work includes over 18 years' support for the Junior League of Palo Alto; helping raise funds for the YWCA and the West Bay Opera Company; and holding down board positions on the Sheriff's Advisory Board of Santa Clara and the Vintage Affair organization supporting the blind. She says volunteering brings balance to her high-pressure work life, and gives her lots of opportunity to be an informal ambassador for Sun in the local community. Granny would have been proud. |
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