[ Volunteer Event | News ]

UK employee completes the London Marathon for "Get Kids Going"

Gill Payne, salesforce.com human resources team in the UK, completed the London Marathon on 23 April in an impressive 4 hours and 39 minutes.

Sponsored by friends and colleagues, with a contribution from the Foundation, Gill will raise over £3000 for "Get Kids Going" (www.getkidsgoing.co.uk).

Gill says "I’m thrilled that the donation ... is enough to buy a sports wheelchair for a disabled child who might dream of becoming a Paralympic champion."

HTML training begins at the YMCA Dublin

We've finally begun our Web Training class in the YMCA in Dublin this week! This fantastic piece of volunteering from the EMEA team was done by Mark Stanley and Alessandro Bolzani from Salesforce.com Dublin office. 

Mark developed the course material for this class and Alessandro provided 'hands-on' technical help. It's a great opportunity for us in salesforce to share our skills.

A further €3,500 Raised at All-Company Annual Dinner

Eugene Hillery made a request at the All-Company EMEA Dinner to contribute to St Martins School in Kenya, which resulted in an overwhelming donation from everyone of almost €3,500, pushing the total up to almost €6,570.


From all avenues of donations including a grant of €5,000 from the foundation, there is now almost €17,000 to be spent in Kenya.

THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING SO GENEROUS

[ Events | Newsletter ]

ALL-EMEA Annual Company Meeting Volunteering in Ballymun, Dublin!

A fantastic crew of almost 50 volunteers from all over Europe to volunteer at the All-Company volunteering day in Ballymun on February 22nd. Volunteering was divided into four activities - Habitat for Humanity (site clearing), Ballymun Men’s Centre (painting the outside and a new sign), Ballymun East Community Centre (general beautifying with paint and plants) and St.Joseph’s School (tree planting and clearing the playing fields). Cristina Cista, EMEA Renewal Team, who volunteered on the Habitat for Humanity site said "it was really rewarding, getting involved and seeing real change happening, from the old flats in Ballymun to the new houses".

Sackfuls of presents donated by employees

Salesforce employees in London and Dublin were incredibly generous in donating over £1000 worth of great Christmas gifts for kids who otherwise wouldn't be receiving any.

In London, gifts were given for Kids Company's Christmas day party, which caters for up to 500 kids who cannot be with their family.

In Dublin, gifts were for kids from Citywise and were given at their Christmas party at the end of December. 

Sion Lewis, regional sales manager in the UK, told the Foundation, "Thanks for making it so easy for us to do this sort of thing, it is a nice feeling I have to say!"

CoffeeCup - 'fresh software, warm people' donate web licenses to YMCA

CoffeeCup (http://www.coffeecup.com) generously donated licenses for their user-friendly web authoring product to the YMCA Dublin. Salesforce.com volunteers Mark Stanley and Robert Tweedy made contact with with US software company who responded quickly and generously to a request for software. This is a huge help to the YMCA's STEP Program which trains and aids young adults in computer skills, interview techniques, job placements and web skills.

[ Volunteer Event | News ]

15 Dublin Volunteers Take 70 Citywise Youth Ice-Skating

15 volunteers from salesforce.com Dublin office took 70 youths from Citywise Education Centre, Tallaght for an afternoon of ice-skating at the RDS to begin the holiday festivities. 70 energetic kids ranging from 9 - 16 years of age raced around the rink for an afternoon skate, and returned to their coaches exhausted! Many of the smaller kids got star treatment from the more 'advanced' skating volunteers, Tracy O'Brien, Francesc Arbiol and Ciaran Shanley amongst others, while Ernest Calvet had a mini fan-club formed by early afternoon!

Weekend of volunteering with children with cancer at Barretstown

During October, Dublin employees Annalisa O'Carroll, Nicola O'Gorman, Camilla Kenny, Zoe O'Flynn, Soraya Perez and Giuseppe Vitulano, gave 180 hours of volunteer time  volunteering with children with cancer and other serious illnesses.

The Barretstown Gang, created by Paul Newman, offers weekend camps with sports and fun activities for the kids and their families.

The motto for this "magical castle in the foothills of the Wicklow Mountains" is "There is no such thing as a sick child, just a child who happens to be sick".

KiJu premiere their film "Joy of Motherhood"

On 18 October, youth organization KiJu, in Brandenburg, Germany, showcased their film "Joy of Motherhood" sponsored by salesforce.com/foundation.

The five young mothers who made the film, with local film-maker Anett Schulze, were proud to show their work to an audience of 60 people, including the Mayor, local politicians, the head of a local TV station, the local press and their friends and families. A representative from the local womens' refuge said that the young women were "very brave" to have made this film and speak about their feelings.

Salesforce.com employees Sieglinde Loeffler, marketing manager from the Munich office, and Caroline Haeming, sales representative for Germany based in Dublin, attended the film premiere and were shown the KiJu facility by Director Axel Krause.

[ Volunteer Event | News ]

Volunteers build playground at children's respite care home in Poland

For the second year running, eight salesforce.com EMEA volunteers travelled to Poland over a long weekend in September, to the Children in Crisis (www.childrenincrisis.org.uk) Mountain Haven respite care home for children with cancer and pollution-related illnesses, two hours from Krakow.

Last year the team re-painted the entire accommodation block. This year they took on the equally ambitious task of building a playground structure. They bought a slide, netting and other equipment not available in Poland and took it with them on the plane.

Volunteering with the Barretstown Gang Spring 06

VISIT TO ST.MARTIN'S GIRLS' SCHOOL, KENYA

In March 2006, Eugene Hillery from salesforce.com Dublin, together with Isabel Kelly, Salesforce Foundation, and Ronan Davy from Dublin law firm Matheson, Ormsby, Prentice (MOP), travelled to Kenya to spend a week with St.Martin's Girls' School in the Kibagare slum, outside Nairobi.

The School gives a home and wonderful education to some of the brightest girls from the slum and other underserved areas of Kenya; the standard of education they receive will entirely change their lives, and many will go on to create real social change in Kenya.

In the weeks before travelling, Eugene and Ronan worked hard to fundraise money for the school from colleagues at salesforce.com and MOP, and from friends and family. Together with a Foundation grant, the team were able to take €20,000 as a donation to the school, which will enable complete refurbishment of the school, including painting, new desks and chairs, books and equipment for the science lab.

For the salesforce visitors it was great to see that the school makes use all day, every day, of the salesforce IT lab. Cisco will soon be running an IT Essentials program in the lab which will put St.Martin's among the top level of IT teaching schools in Kenya.

During the week the visitors and teachers organized  field trips for all the girls in years 1, 2 and 3 (160 girls in total) to Lake Nakuru National Park and to Nairobi National Park. The salesforce Film Club got some great footage of the days. Year 4 were taking exams during the week, so they got a surprise pizza party at lunchtime.

One of the girls told deputy head Eric Waweru, "you brought the best visitors, they didn't just choose a few girls to take on an outing, they took us all"!

Dublin office raises over €3,150 in Pub Quiz for Kenya!

Success at Davos 2006 for Architects of Global Change

The World Economic Forum holds its annual summit of global leaders every January in Davos, Switzerland. 

At this year's event salesforce.com/foundation organized and co-hosted a very successful cocktail event for over 300 social entreprenuers and business people.

The theme of the evening was "Social Entrepreneurship" and the four hosts are all incredible leaders in advocating using business to effect social good: Marc Benioff (salesforce.com/foundation), Klaus Schwab (The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship), Michael Dell (The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation) and Peter Gabriel (WITNESS).

[ Volunteer Event | News ]

City of Dublin YMCA visit Salesforce.com Dublin for Awards Day

On December 20th the salesforce Dublin office welcomed nine students of the YMCA STEP Program for the afternooon. The students have completed a six month, full-time course in office management, IT skills and interview preparation, run by the City of Dublin YMCA.

Fergus Gloster, VP for Corporate Sales EMEA presented each student with their Step Certificate.

[ Volunteer Event | News ]

Science is festive fun!

On 9 December, 14 volunteers from salesforce.com UK, business partner Paul Nedas and Emma from Kids Company, escorted 48 eight and nine year-olds plus teachers, from a north London school, to the Science Museum.

The day was packed with activities including the amazing 3D "Walking on the Moon" film in the IMAX cinema, and visiting the Energy room to learn about sustainable fuels (particularly from cows!). Adults and kids learned a lot. 

Deputy Headteacher from the school, Geraldine, writes "The Year 4 children had a wonderful time on Friday, they were very excited when they set off and returned having had a good time. We would like to extend our thanks to you and the Salesforce team for organising and supporting the day."
 

Alliances Director completes first half marathon for Daisy's Dream

Henley-on-Thames, Sunday 9th October, Steve Bridge - salesforce.com EMEA Director of Allliances, ran his first half marathon in aid of Daisy’s Dream, a charity that provides support for bereaved children in Southern England.

Steve said " ... as well as getting a bit fitter, I raised £1,500 for the charity, through the support of many Salesforce.com colleagues, and the Salesforce.com Foundation.

"I completed the run in 1 hour 50 minutes, which left me 24 minutes and 552 places behind James Cracknell, the Olympic rower who was also taking part, but did allow me to salvage some pride by beating the only bloke dressed as a nun."

Rolf Guenther saves the Natterjack toad!

Dublin-based salesforce.com employee Rolf Guenther recently spent four days in the Raven Nature Reserve in County Wexford doing general habitat conservation work, including fencing and pine sapling clearance.

Raven is one of only two areas in Ireland where the endangered Natterjack Toad can be found. Conservation Volunteers Ireland have previously undertaken pond clearance prior to the spawning season, and fencing projects, to protect the Natterjack's habitat.

Rolf enjoyed his four days, particularly as he made such a tangible contribution to Ireland's wildlife.

More information about Conservation Volunteers Ireland here: www.cvi.ie 

Customer Success Manager cycles from Berlin to Copenhagen, raises €5,000 for Niger

Dublin-based salesforce.com employee, Stephen Cummins, finally found a cause that motivated him to get off his office chair and use his six days' volunteer time.

Particularly moved by the humanitarian crisis in Niger, Stephen decided to resurrect his enthusiasm for cycling and pedalled 600km from Berlin to Copenhagen.

[ Company Event | News ]

Barnardo's UK 16+ Program join salesforce.com Regatta

On 19 September a group from Barnardo's 16+ Resource Centre in east London, joined the first salesforce.com/foundation Regatta at Port Solent. They didn't win the race, but they did win the £6.5K prize money!

Fourteen yachts took part, 12 of them crewed and sponsored by salesforce.com customers, and two by salesforce.com volunteers together with the Barnardo's group.