Intel Employees Donate Over 1 Million Volunteer Hours in 2008

• Author: admin
• Filed under: Tech News
• Date: Dec 5,2008

I wrote about Intel’s World Mural Project in July, which was part of Intel’s attempt to give back 1 million employee volunteer hours during their 40th anniversary year. I was told by Intel that they hit their mark earlier this year, and the announcement was made on Friday, Dec. 5th, which was also the United Nations’ International Volunteer Day.

Intel employees increased their “giving” in both a global sense and a time sense. They volunteered in more than 40 countries in 2008, a more than 50% increase from 2007. Additionally, more than 47,000 Intel employees volunteered in 2008, a 16% bump from 2007.

Some examples of the projects that Intel participated in:

• Using expertise honed at Intel, a group of employees from Intel’s New Mexico human resources group held a career clinic at a family services center, helping clients update resumes, complete job applications, and provide interviewing tips.
• In San Jose, California, near Intel’s Santa Clara headquarters, Intel employees and the national non-profit, Lose the Training Wheels, helped youths with disabilities learn to ride bikes and ultimately gain confidence and independence.
• In Massachusetts, a program to save a nearly extinct colorful falcon called the Kestrel is way ahead of schedule thanks to Intel employees who built the wooden boxes required for nesting.
• Among the thousands of global projects, Intel employees mentored disadvantaged youth in Brazil, adopted turtles in Malaysia, made stuffed bears for children in hospitals in Micronesia, taught geometry, physics and other challenging subject to Israeli students, and teamed up with paramedics to conduct health screenings in Turkish villages.

and, in these tough economic times, this one in particular resonates with me. Anyone watching the news and shows such as Bill Moyers Journal is aware of the increase of Americans using food banks.

• Roughly 4000 employees volunteered at 40 food banks throughout the U.S. where they collected more than 14 tons of food. Additionally, five teams of employees from Intel’s Hudson, MA campus volunteered more than 400 hours at the Brigham Hill Farm for the Community Harvest Project, Inc., which grows fresh seasonal produce for the Greater Worcester Food Bank.

Despite tough times, companies appear to still be giving, but I will add my cynical part of this post: Friday’s job loss numbers of 533,000 in November, the highest in 34 years, leads one to believe that more will be needing help such as the above. Let’s hope Intel and others continues to give it.

For more examples of Intel’s volunteerism, you can visit www.intel.com/community.