Our Amway One by One Campaign for Children had quite a week last week.

Amway staff attended the International Corporate Citizenship Conference, organized by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship.

Our own Jesse Hertstein was one of the speakers, explaining how our campaign is organized globally, but is implemented with flexibility among the local country affiliates.

We also were honored with an award: Our film highlighting 10 years of our One by One Campaign was named one of the 10 finalists in a film festival sponsored by Boston College.

Many thanks to all who voted for it. That film has now been viewed more than 10,000 times. Thank you to everyone for helping us share our story!

“Amway was founded on the belief that, by helping people improve their lives, they could make the world a better place.”

So begins the message from our Chairman Steve Van Andel and our President Doug DeVos in the Amway 2012 Global Corporate Social Responsibility Report released today.

The annual report highlights the many ways our company, its more than 21,000 employees and more than 3 million distributors make a difference in the lives of others.

That includes building homes in Latin America, providing water filters in Haiti, building libraries in China and adopting schools right here in the hometown of our World Headquarters.

Corporate Social Responsibility is built into everything we do: our people, our products and our performance.

 Steve and Doug credit their fathers for recognizing the potential in this business for making a difference.

“They made it their mission to be more, do more, give more. And more than a half-century later, we’re still emulating their powerful example. … We’re awed by how far we’ve come and inspired to keep becoming more, together.”

Read the full report here.

One of the wonderful things about our Amway One by One Campaign for Children is how our employees and distributors reach out to make a difference right where they live. Because we operate in more than 100 countries and territories, in the 10 years since the campaign launched, lives have been changed all over the world.

This infographic represents only a small fraction of the more than 10 million children we’ve helped over the last decade. There are just too many projects to fit on one map!

Remember this video highlighting the wonderful accomplishments of our business owners and employees through 10 years of our Amway One by One Campaign for Children?  It has a chance to win an award and you can help.

It’s part of the film festival at Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship. The website is recording public votes through March 1 for the best video.  Please vote and help us share our story! (Click here to vote.)

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Our Amway One by One Campaign for Children celebrates 10 years of providing hope, inspiration and generosity to children across the world. In those 10 years, 10 million children have been helped by the efforts of our wonderful distributors and employees. We celebrate that accomplishment and thank everyone who made a difference. We also look forward to the next 10 years of building better lives for children in our communities.

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Amway now operates in more than 100 countries and territories. Wherever we go, we try to connect with the community, and our hometown is no different.

We are pleased to partner with Grand Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD TV to share our stories of connecting to the West Michigan community. As Amway Chairman Steve Van Andel and President Doug DeVos explain in these videos, connecting with community has always been a part of the Amway culture.

A team from the Amway One by One Campaign for Children went to China recently to capture the wonderful stories of Amway distributors helping those who need it most.

They went to the remote Long Ma Village to learn about the Spring Sprout program that helps feed children whose parents moved to the city to find work.

And they went to Beijing, where other distributors are helping the rural children that moved with their parents to find work through Project Sunshine.

Migrant children in the city don’t have access to the same schooling as the children who live there. That’s where Project Sunshine comes in, helping to build libraries and supporting other educational programs.

The Amway One by One blog chronicled the team’s first impressions of the trip – Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 – and there will be more to come. Until then, check out the collection of photos at the Amway Facebook page.

Amway World Headquarters will be closed Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 in celebration of Thanksgiving.

We are very thankful for our employees and distributors all over the world.

Would you like to know why? Click over to our One by One blog to see some of the amazing things they do.

Happy holidays!

Throughout the world, our employees and distributors help children live, learn, achieve and play.

And sometimes those efforts are grounds for recognition.

This week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder presented Amway with the Corporate Community Leader Award during the 2012 Governor’s Service Awards ceremony.

Read about it in our One By One Blog or visit our newsroom at globalnews.amway.com.

Five years ago, Amway and KaBOOM! started a partnership to provide more children with safe places to play.

Four days ago, more than 300 community members and Amway volunteers teamed up to build a playground at D.A. Blodgett - St. John’s Home – an organization dedicated to providing homes and hope for children and their families.

The playground is the 14th built by KaBOOM! and Amway, the 10th built in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and one of more than 150 playground builds KaBOOM! will lead across the U.S. in 2012.

Amway President Doug DeVos and leaders from KaBOOM! and D.A. Blodgett kicked off this Amway One by One project with motivational words that stayed with us all day long. You could feel the energy build as people were dancing to the music and sweating from the heavy lifting. A heart-felt dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony reaffirmed each person’s role in making this dream a reality. 

Building this playground brought hundreds of laughs and smiles, and it will be responsible for many more to come.