Most of the time, our efforts here at Amway are dedicated to creating the best business opportunity possible. However, we occasionally pause to reflect on another extremely important aspect – one we all do collectively – and that’s the Amway One By One Campaign for Children.
This important program, in which IBO’s take a very active role, takes us away from our offices, away from our day-to-day activities – and smack-dab into the hearts and minds of children who need our help.
In nearly every country where we do business around the world, Amway Independent Business Owners, employees and customers are creating positive change for children by establishing local partnerships to address kid-centric issues.
In short, we’re helping children live, learn, achieve and play.
In China we’ve helped kids get a better education.
In Japan we’ve supported sensory therapy programs to help blind and visually impaired children experience the wonders of life.
In Russia the Campaign has facilitated fully-equipped playrooms for kids during their hospital stays.
And here in North America we’ve built playgrounds, planted gardens with Boys and Girls Clubs, and volunteered our resources in many other ways to improve the lives of children.
So today, as is our tradition, we’re proud to share an update of our collective efforts.
Since 2003 the Amway One By One Campaign for Children has:
· Raised $168 million in contributions
· Volunteered 2.5 million hours
· Impacted 9.5 million children in 50 countries worldwide
Of course, numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. But we hope you agree: it’s amazing what can happen when the common goal is simply making a difference – especially when it comes to children in need.
That’s when making a difference makes all the difference.
So on behalf of the employees at Amway North America, thanks for all you do to make this program such a success. Let’s strive to continue increasing our collective efforts in 2012 and beyond.
Many of us take our abilities for granted. Sure, there are everyday challenges, but for most of us, nothing is insurmountable.
Then there are everyday hero’s like young Suzanne, who was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair to get around. Or an adorable five-year-old named Jake who has autism spectrum disorder. Or any one of the millions of children with disabilities who face life’s difficulties head-on, and achieve personal goals every day of their lives.
These children are being assisted through the Easter Seals “Walk With Me” campaign, a national fund-raising event that spreads hope and raises funds to support families living with disabilities. “Walk With Me” events combine individual walkers with teams, as everybody gets together for a day of entertainment, fun, and of course, those fund-raising walks. Last year, more than 23,000 people participated, raising $3.8 million for children receiving assistance through Easter Seals.
Amway is once again proud to be the National Presenting Sponsor of “Walk With Me” with more than 1,000 Amway Independent Business Owners and employees participating in dozens of events around the country. Amway has supported Easter Seals for the past 27 years, raising more than $30 million for this worthwhile cause through the Amway One by One Campaign for Children.
Amway Independent Business Owners and employees will participate in the “Walk With Me” event on Saturday, June 11 at Battery Park in New York City.
This year, I will be joining Amway Independent Business Owners and employees to participate in the “Walk With Me” event June 15 at John Ball Park Zoo, in our hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
How about you? You, too, can make a difference and help these wonderful kids achieve big goals in their young lives. Please consider joining us on a “Walk With Me” event in your community.
It’s also the driving force behind the U.S. Dream Academy (USDA), an after-school and mentoring program whose mission is to empower at-risk youth by providing academic, social, and value enrichment through supportive mentoring programs.
USDA began in 1998 by serving the children of incarcerated parents and children falling behind in school. Since then, the Academy has served more than 6,500 students in neighborhoods in 10 communities across the country.
Academy programs combine mentoring, strong academics, and technology to help elementary school students engage in active learning. The overall goal is to nurture the whole child while altering attitudes, enhancing self-esteem, supporting emotional and intellectual growth, and sparking dreams.
This kind of positivity has been powering the Amway business since 1959. We’ve always been in the business of helping people live better lives.
In fact, Amway is the Presenting Sponsor for the upcoming 10th Annual Power of a Dream Gala taking place on May 25 at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C.
This black-tie fundraiser gathers together more than 500 of the most influential, respected politicians, business people, philanthropists, social leaders, and entertainment and media moguls to celebrate the many achievements of the Academy. To date, the Gala has raised more than $10 million to enable the Academy to continue their amazing work.
This year’s Gala will feature special performances by the one-and-only Patti LaBelle, along with Committed and the USDA’s Dream Kids Choir. Special appearances include former Redskins/NFL Hall of Famer Darrell Green and his wife, Jewell, and Miss America Outstanding Teen Chair Donna Bozarth.
We look forward to the Gala, and our continued partnership with the U.S. Dream Academy, as, together, we help at-risk children realize the power of a dream.
With Mother’s Day coming up, I want to give a shout-out to all the moms reading this. Nobody works harder, if I do say so myself. In fact, every mom I know is entitled to have a special day set aside just for them.
That goes double for the moms who aren’t our birth moms. They’re our Other Mothers: those special people in our lives who took us in and mothered us when, for whatever reason, Mom wasn’t there.
Nobody understands the value of Other Mothers better than the SOS Children’s Villages organization. They practically invented the idea. At the heart of each SOS family around the world is the SOS Mother – the Other Mother – who dedicates her life to raising a generation of orphaned and abandoned children as if they were her own, living with them, caring for them, comforting them, and celebrating them.
Amway’s One by One Campaign for Children is proud to partner with SOS Children’s Villages around the world, providing much-needed housing in desperately poor areas and helping these treasured Other Mothers be the moms these children would otherwise never have.
So this Mother’s Day, May 8, along with traditional moms, we’re also celebrating these unsung heroes – grandparents, aunts, family friends, neighbors, teachers – all those wonderful people who reached out and parented a kid when he or she really needed guidance.
You can celebrate your own Other Mother in a very special way, starting (appropriately enough) on Mother’s Day. The SOS Children’s Villages Other Mother contest invites you to tell the world why your Other Mother deserves to be named “Other Mother of the Year.”
Prizes include a Schwinn bike, a Nook Color™ reader from our Partner Store Barnes and Noble, or an Amway gift basket.
But the best prize of all is the wonderful tribute you’ll be giving to your very own Other Mother.
Because Mother’s Day is a special day for all moms. Maybe especially, Other Mothers. If you know one of them, it’s time to celebrate her.
As you know, the disaster in Japan is of unimaginable proportions, and the need is great. At Amway, we are doing everything we can to help out our friends as they struggle to put their lives back together.
For the past 120 years, the Red Cross has addressed basic human needs in times of crisis. Your donations will help provide medicine, clothing, food, and shelter for the victims of the Japan earthquake and tsunami.
In addition, Amway will provide 100 million yen (about $1.2 million) in cash and product donations to support relief efforts there, in partnership with local nonprofits through the Amway One by One Campaign for Children.
We take comfort in knowing our employees in Japan are safe, and we’ll continue to do all we can to support and aid the many Amway Independent Business Owners living in Japan.
Of course, we continue to support and send our sympathies to our friends, their families and neighbors whose lives have been so tragically transformed in the last few days.
Now, we’re asking you to join us with your thoughts and continued support for the people of Japan, and your financial support during this very challenging time. Thank you.
Join us in the New York Walk With Me event on Saturday, June 12. You’ll get a great walk and help Easter Seals New York provide services to children and adults with disabilities.
It’s a fun-filled day in Battery Park with hundreds of walkers, runners, and even roller-bladers participating.
Amway Global is a National Presenting Sponsor on all 70 Walk With Me events across the nation, including this Saturday’s NYC walk and the walk in our hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Wednesday, June 16. Money raised at Walk With Me events stays in those communities, helping people who live and work there. I will be at both events walking with other Amway Global executives, employees and IBOs to raise awareness for this wonderful organization!
2010 marks the 27th year we’ve partnered with Easter Seals. That makes it our biggest and longest-running sponsorship in the U.S.
To date, more than 3,500 IBOs have participated in Walk With Me events – raising more than $400,000 every year for this worthwhile cause.
This year – with your help – Amway Global, IBOs, and employees will hit a milestone of $30 million in donations!
It’s who we are. It’s what we do. And we invite you to join us!
The Amway Global Positive Growth gardening program continues to plant demonstration sites across the country, as it opens its second garden this Saturday in Denver. This joint project with Boys and Girls Clubs of America will build seven community gardens to teach kids about nutrition, organic gardening practices, cooking from the garden, and starting and maintaining their own edible gardens.
The program model and curriculum will be offered to thousands of Boys & Girls Clubs across the country, as part of a new three-year partnership between Amway Global and Boys & Girls Clubs of America that focuses on increasing the nutritional well-being of Club members.
The first garden opened in Philadelphia on May 15. A group of volunteers, including a number of IBOs, worked side by side to create a series of gardens.
Already, a group of IBO volunteers are ready to descend– or rather, ascend – on the Mile High City to dig in and do their share to support this program.
The next garden openings, after Denver, are Seattle (June 12), Grand Rapids (June 19), San Diego (June24), and Buena Park, Calif. (June 26). A date has yet to be determined for the opening of the seventh garden in Orlando.
If you’re interested in volunteering at a garden opening in your area, please contact us at boysandgirlsclubs@amwayglobal.com.
Be sure to check out pictures and a video of the Philadelphia garden project.
On behalf of Amway Global, I’m proud to announce a new partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. For the next three years, we’ll work together to grow the Amway Global Positive Sprouts project. This opportunity mobilizes volunteers to get their hands dirty and plant seven gardens across the United States. Our goal is to leverage our expertise as a health and wellness company to teach kids about the importance of incorporating fruits and vegetables into their diet.
We need your help! We’re looking for IBOs in the Philadelphia area to roll up their sleeves to help us plant the first garden at the inaugural Positive Sprouts project kick-off event on May 15.
As part of the AMWAY ONE BY ONE CAMPAIGN FOR CHILDREN®, this partnership is only one of the ways the ways our company helps people live better lives. It’s one program, that’s part of a bigger campaign, to help children around the world.
