IBM volunteers leverage professional skills to help Toronto Schools and Non-Profits

Hundreds of IBM Canada Volunteers Leverage Professional Skills to Help Toronto Schools and Non-Profits on June 15

Grade Six Students at Beverley Glen Public School Unleash their Creativity

Mark your calendar for June 15 when tens of thousands of IBMers around the world -- including hundreds of volunteers here in Toronto -- dedicate their time and talents to help improve their communities. IBM’s Centennial Celebration of Service event honours the company’s 100th anniversary and builds on its long tradition of community service by engaging employees, retirees, clients, business partners and others in local service projects in 170 countries where IBM does business.

One of the Toronto-based activities includes the IBM-facilitated Destination ImagiNation Creativity Camp for kids, where small teams of 11-year-olds unleash their creativity, critical thinking and collaboration skills to complete challenges like bridge-building or tower construction using common household items. 

WHERE: Beverley Glen Jr. Public School, 85 Beverly Glen Blvd, in Scarborough (Warden and Finch). Beverley Glen is representative of the 52 school locations across the Toronto District School Board, and 247 schools across the GTA, participating in this IBM Centennial Activity. The camp will be led by local IBM volunteers, including Bruce Ross, IBM President.

WHEN: Media are invited to attend from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. on June 15. 

WHO/WHAT: IBM Canada President Bruce Ross and Toronto District School Board Director of Education Dr. Chris Spence will make brief opening remarks, then volunteers will lead grade six students through a series of tasks designed to teach them how to ‘think outside the box.” These include:

  • Using only 6 items, make something as tall as possible and strong enough to hold a ping pong ball
  • Using 15 sheets of paper, engineer the tallest tower possible.
  • Using six paper cups and a rubber band, create a 3-2-1 style pyramid without communicating verbally with team members.

CONTACT and RSVP: Leslie Plant; 416-478-9840 or laplant@ca.ibm.com

Destination ImagiNation, the world’s largest ‘non-profit’ creative problem solving program for K-12 youth, developed the camp curriculum. The program helps young people discover their true creative potential and become better team players, communicators, problem solvers, presenters, researchers and budgeters.

IBM’s Celebration of Service builds on the company’s flagship program for empowering volunteers called the On Demand Community. Launched in 2003, the On Demand Community enables employees and retirees to find volunteer activities and identify skills and expertise they can contribute to a specific cause. In October 2010, On Demand Community surpassed 11.5 million hours of service logged by more than 170,000 participants.

IBM’s Centennial Celebration of Service is sponsored by the international philanthropic foundation at IBM, which has been a leader in corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship for 100 years. To learn more about IBM's corporate citizenship initiatives, please visit: http://www.ibm.com/blogs/citizen-ibm. To learn more about IBM’s Centennial efforts, please visit www.ibm.com/press/ibm100.

 

 

Charlene Magnaye

Ketchum Public Relations Canada | 33 Bloor Street East, Suite 1607, Toronto, ON  M4W 3H1
p 416.355.7430 | e charlene.magnaye@ketchum.com | www.ketchum.com/canada

 

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