May 11,2007 Singapore

At the inaugural Spin For Charity event, hosted at Steve & Stephanie Morgan-Russell close to 100 guests and supporters came out to gamble their chips and their luck for the Special Olympics Singapore. Collectively, the event and generous donations of those who were unable to attend raised more than S$115,000, which will send at least 50 athletes to the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai, China this October.

The theme this year was ‘Spin for Charity'. It was a night of high rollers, roulette, black jack and Hi/Lo tables and a pool of fabulous prizes. There was live music, fantastic silent auction items - such as dinners from top restaurants like Garibaldi's, travel vouchers, fine wine, original artwork from Special Olympians and more. As a special treat, we had memorable messages from the Special Olympics organisation, Dr. Teo-Koh President of the Special Olympics Singapore (pictured cheering on far right) and from Jesslyn Ong a Special Olympian medalist in bowling.

The purpose of the evening was to raise at least $75,000 to support Special Olympics Singapore in their mission to provide year-round sports training and competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities so as to enable them to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society. As such, Salesforce.com Foundation has committed $50,000 to match contributions. Special Olympics Singapore currently has ongoing training programmes for seven sports - Aquatics, Badminton, Bocce, Bowling, Floor Hockey, Soccer and Running. It runs three to four individual sport competitions a year and provides opportunities for the athletes to participate in National, Regional and World Games. Each year over 600 persons with intellectual disabilities are involved with Special Olympics activities, the operating costs of which is about $200,000. This year an additional cost of about $90,000 will be required for sending a team of 28 athletes to compete in the Special Olympics World Summer Games in Shanghai from 2-12 October.

Salesforce.com and The Salesforce.com Foundation are committed to supporting the charter of the Special Olympics Singapore. The success of our Spin For Charity event will help the organization to continue to provide opportunities and volunteer support for athletes to participate in year-round sports training and competitions, both locally and overseas.

"Having supported the Special Olympics for several years, I strongly believe that our support of these amazing athletes empowers them to be even more handi-capable than they already are." - Steve Russell, President & CEO, salesforce.com Asia Pacific

Silent Auction Items

Jesslyn Ong, Athlete