At IBM's largest employee site in the United States, Olympic Gold Medalist Cullen Jones hopes to begin another gold-winning relay team with employees as the company begins its nationwide annual Employee Charitable Contribution Campaign (ECCC).
Jones, who won a gold medal in Beijing in the 4x100m freestyle relay in a world record time of 3:08.24 with Michael Phelps, Jason Lezak, and Garrett Weber-Gale, will be speaking to Raleigh-based employees on Wednesday, October 1. The presentation will be part of The Cullen Jones Diversity Tour/Make a Splash aimed at helping to prevent drowning and encourage swimming among minorities. IBM is a sponsor of the tour.
"It's estimated that 60 percent of minorities do not know how to swim," said Jones. "The Make a Splash nonprofit is trying to change that by teaching children and adults a life-saving skill."
Over the last five years, IBM employees nationwide have contributed nearly $170 million to their nonprofits of choice as part of the ECCC. The ECCC is a voluntary, employee-driven fund-raising event that offers IBM employees the opportunity to contribute to nonprofits. Make a Splash, a program of the USA Swimming Foundation, is now one of more than 4,500 nonprofits to which IBM employees can contribute.
"Helping to make a difference in the lives of people where we work and live is a large part of what it means to be an IBM employee," says Bob Greenberg, IBM senior state executive for North Carolina.
In the U.S., more than 43,000 IBM employees are registered to the company's corporate volunteer program, called On Demand Community (ODC), and contributed more than 2 million volunteer hours this year to date. In North Carolina, IBM employees and retirees contributed almost $3 million as part of the ECCC last year. In addition, more than 4,900 IBM employees and retirees in North Carolina participate in the ODC, and have contributed more than 460,000 volunteer hours to date this year.
For more information, contact Evan Morgenstein, president of the Cullen Jones Diversity Tour, 919-332-0594, and
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