When Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel decided to expand Amway beyond U.S. borders in 1962, they didn’t go far.

That year Amway Canada launched in London, Ontario, as the company’s first international market, a four-hour drive away from our world headquarters in Ada, Michigan.

Today Amway Canada  commemorates its 50th anniversary. The celebration has been going on all year, through different events to mark the golden anniversary. A 50th anniversary video tells the story of Amway Canada from the perspectives of the distributors and employees who helped build our business there.  Others have shared thoughts and words on a “virtual memory wall” at Amway Canada’s Facebook page.   

Yesterday Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving.   Today, we give thanks for the distributors, employees and customers who have made Amway Canada what it is today.

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Did you know that Amway employees and distributors have volunteered more than 2.5 million hours to make the communities where they work and live a better place?

Read about our ongoing efforts around the world in the 2011 Amway Global Corporate Citizenship Report published today, or in the Amway One By One blog.  That blog, by the way, was recently honored as the “Best Corporate Social Responsibility” blog by PR News.

You didn’t have to search far to find Amway Canada in the news this summer.

Our Canadian affiliate made headlines by taking home two prestigious honors at the Canadian Direct Selling Association (CDSA) annual meeting in June. Amway Canada received CDSA’s “Making a Difference” award for its support of Easter Seals, notably for raising hundreds of thousands of dollars through the organization’s Drop-Zone Events. 

And Angela Abdallah, our manager of communications and  government affairs and vice chair of CDSA, was given the industry’s highest honor, the Ivan P. Phelan Award.  This award honors those who have made  “a significant contribution to the advancement of the direct selling industry in Canada.”

Finally, Amway Canada was featured in two major stories about direct selling in Canada  in La Presse and Direct Selling News.

As a kid, I tried every sport out there and my mom would tote me around the city, pack my snacks, pay my fees, and most of all, cheer me on.

Amway is doing the same thing as we sponsor teams and athletes around the world and around the world of sports.  These sponsorships include:

Badminton: In Indonesia, six badminton players wear the Nutrilite name including Men’s Double Champions Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan.

Basketball: The NBA’s Orlando Magic call the Amway Center home and their practice jerseys also sport our logo. Amway China and Amway Taiwan sponsor the Nutrilite Junior NBA tournament, a program which brings fun and healthy activities to hundreds of middle school students who compete against each other to travel to the United States to participate in NBA All-Star weekend.

Billiards: The World Pool Billiard’s Association Women’s 9-Ball Open has been sponsored by Amway Taiwan for 14 years.

Cricket: Adam Gilchrist is an Amway spokesperson for Australia.

Football: NFL MVP and quarterback Kurt Warner also works with Nutrilite and Amway North America to promote nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.

Gymnastics: Amway China sponsors the Chinese artistic gymnastics team, which recently brought home 13 gold medals from the 2010 Asian Games.

Hockey:  The NHL’s Detroit Red Wings wear the Amway logo on their practice jerseys and the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins will also wear the logo at home and away.

Ice Skating: Since 2007, Amway Canada and Artistry have sponsored Skate Canada, an event that features the world’s top skaters, and Amway China sponsored Artistry on Ice in 2010 and will repeat again this year.

Running:  Marathon runner Kara Goucher is a spokesperson for Nutrilite and Amway North America.

Soccer: Nutrilite is a premium sponsor of professional Italian team AC Milan. Amway Canada sponsors the Nutrilite Canadian Championship; that decides who will represent Canada in the World Cup, and Amway Korea sponsored the Korea Republic team in last summer’s World Cup.  North America is the presenting sponsor of Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes.

Swimming: Olympic Gold medalist Libby Trickett represents our brands in Australia

That’s a lot of cheering, in a lot of different languages, going on.