On Tuesday, Summer posted “Giving: Better Than Receiving,” a blog about all of the organizations SoftLayer has supported in 2011, and I’m one of the lucky SLayers on the new Charity Committee. We recently began this initiative to oversee charitable donations at SoftLayer and (more importantly) to encourage all employees to step-up and make a DIFFERENCE. Whether by volunteering or financially supporting a local charity, the idea is that we all participate in our community and try and help in some way.
One of the best examples of an organization that does amazing things for communities and people who deserve a little extra love is the TV show, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” I’ve always loved the show, and I’m only quasi-embarrassed that I’ve shed a tear or two when the crowd shouts, “Move that bus!” and the homeowners see their brand new home. If you aren’t familiar with the show, the EM:HE team finds deserving families who, for one reason or another, need a new home, and over the course of one week, the EM:HE crew and a slew of local volunteers set to work to rebuild or remodel the home.
You can imagine the amount of supplies, coordination and man-hours that go into building a new home or completely remodeling it in just one week. That’s where the community and local businesses get involved: Supplies are donated by companies, and the work force is made up of show employees, people from the sponsoring companies, and an average of 2,500 volunteers every episode.
With that generous involvement, the challenge becomes coordinating the massive amount of work, people and projects to get everything done in a short period of time. That’s where the Internet comes in. How can the show maintain an online presence for vendors, sponsors and fans of the show? Each of them plays an important part in the show’s success, so they need to be kept “in the know” with the most up-to-date information. And that’s where we come in.
This philanthropic show definitely meets the requirements of SoftLayer’s Charity Committee, and when the show was nominated as a prospective organization to support, we immediately set plans in motion to figure out how we could help support the show and the deserving families getting new homes.
We’ve donated $25,000 in free hosting services this season to support the show’s online presence. We’ll be providing a place for vendors who donate to gain some visibility and a place for fans to watch videos and keep up with the show … And that’s no small task: The site receives about 6.8 million monthly impressions.
As Summer mentioned in her post, this is just one of the many ways we’re reaching out to support organizations that are doing great work. Let us know what charities matter the most to you, and we’ll get them on our radar. We’re always looking for ways to get involved, and the first step is learning about who’s doing this kind of amazing work for such a great cause.
