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Intel Events: Line dancing, BBQ, & a school bus

Amanda_Trudell
Employee
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Intel has another passion that isn’t technology: I’m talking about community involvement. Whether it’s education or the environment or the local community, employees are encouraged to get out of the office and get involved. In an effort to increase employee volunteer contributions, September was our OO4O, or “Out of Office for Others” campaign. Doenene, an Intel Corporate Affairs employee in Oregon, shares the experience she had shortly after Labor Day.

Wow, what a week for Intel Involved volunteering here in Oregon, was this week really only four days? The week started with prepping the Centro Cultural in Cornelius, for painting, packaging food at the Oregon Food Bank-West, organizing a warehouse for Sunshine Food Pantry in Beaverton, OR, getting the Community Cycling center ready for their Holiday bike drive in NE Portland, and ending this evening with a BBQ at a beautiful barn dance event, sponsored by the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation Department, for the special needs community..

What a fantastic way to end the week. The live music by the local country band, Daily, and the gorgeous property, were both donated so this community could have some social interaction and just plain fun. Our job was simply to interact with the guests, serve them a little BBQ, and clean up afterwards. We loaded onto a big yellow school bus at the Elsie Stuhr Center, in Beaverton, and off we headed to the event. The property, privately owned by the Hinchcliff family, was gorgeous. There were bales of hay, lights strung, a dance floor laid out, BBQ’s blazing, and of course the band playing. We served food, and then got out and showed them what a group from Intel is made of – line dancing on the dance floor. Yeah, OK, Dancing with the Stars is not coming to knock on any of our doors soon (or ever), but the important thing is the guests had a great time, and so did we. I had never met anyone on tonight’s Intel volunteer team before, actually I did not know anyone this whole week during my OO4O volunteering, but it didn’t matter; we work together and the camaraderie came naturally. This whole week has reinforced, or reignited, this sense of kinship from within. I know volunteering takes time, and some creative scheduling, but as I reflect back on this hectic week, I feel revived, renewed, and connected with my community.

 

OO4O_DoeneneDoes this sound like an experience just too-good-to-be-true? It’s not. In fact, it’s the norm around here. In 2011, US Intel employees have given over 315,800 hours of community service so far…and most of these hours will be matched by the company. An employer who encourages and matches volunteer contributions? Now that definitely deserves a Yee Ha!