We have a long-standing tradition of giving back to the communities where we work and live. This year the holiday spirit is alive and well across multiple sites. We've been busy gathering toys and coats and wrapping donated gifts to assist our local neighbors. We not only give back during this holiday season but also give back all year long.
A few of the holiday events at TI sites around the world have included shopping to help fill some needs, participating in the Salvation Army Angel Tree Program, adopting a few families, collecting gifts, serving a holiday meal to those less fortunate and visiting an autistic children’s home.
Silicon Valley TIers give back 
The annual tradition of holiday giving continues to be strong this year in Silicon Valley. One of the events is getting together and shopping for holiday gifts for children and seniors served by the Family Giving Tree organization. Employees are able to adopt wish tags to fulfill a holiday wish of a local low-income child or senior.
“During the holiday season, I like to give my support to two major local agencies, the Second Harvest Food Bank and the Family Giving Tree,” said Andy Franklin, manager, ADS Design Support Services. “In the Bay Area we all live in hardworking communities, but there are so many who work hard to provide for their families, but are still struggling to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck. I think giving folks an extra helping hand at this time of year, with our extra food donations and presents for the kids, can really boost their spirits and give them a Christmas to remember.” Andy added this is a special time of year and we should all be extra generous and try to make it special for everyone."
Results of the Silicon Valley initiatives were impressive:
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Employees spent more than $52,000 at shopping sprees this year, raising 2,127 gifts. Together with gifts and money donated directly, TI employees provided more than 2,250 gifts for children and seniors served by the Family Giving Tree.
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Employees donated $2,085 to the Second Harvest Food Bank. Together with a match from the TI Community Fund, this effort will provide 8,340 meals to families facing hunger.
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In just three weeks, 459 TI volunteers donated more than 1,193 hours at company-sponsored holiday volunteer events.
Analog raises the bar for Salvation Army Angel Tree donations
This year marked the third year for our Dallas-based Analog business to participate in the Salvation Army Angel Tree Program. A total of 12 pallets of gifts were donated by TIers. Interest was first sparked across Analog when the HVAL team supported the Salvation Army Angel Tree program in 2013. With the great results from the prior year in mind, the Analog Admins decided that it would be worthwhile to involve all of Analog, and the Processor Organization in Embedded Processing participated as well.
Major Barbara Rich from the Salvation Army attended the donation party to thank the team for their efforts and noted that TI has supported 1,500 Angels since 2013. Each Salvation Army Angel tag has a “need” and “wish” that the family of the child has submitted.
The thought of all the smiles on Christmas morning is a great reward for all of us,” said Linda Black, event coordinator. “It is uplifting to know that our efforts will provide an unforgettable Christmas for less fortunate families in our community.
You may read more about the Angel Tree Program at: http://dfwangeltree.org/.
TIers and Dallas Police team up to bring holiday spirit to neighbors 
Neighbors in Dallas received a little extra holiday spirit recently. More than 20 Worldwide Protective Services employees and contractors partnered with Dallas Police officers to help residents of the Hamilton Park community which is adjacent to TI’s Dallas headquarters site. These volunteers decorated six homes with Christmas lights and delivered some holiday food. The Hamilton Park Civic League had identified homeowners who needed an extra hand to participate in the neighborhood’s holiday lighting competition, a long tradition.
“Our volunteers felt great about bringing smiles to the faces of these residents. The holiday season is a good time to check on our neighbors, especially elderly people or someone with medical issues who may need a little extra assistance,” said Gail Chandler, TI Citizenship communications and community relations. “We had great teamwork too as our security personnel worked alongside Dallas police, building relationships that will benefit the company and neighborhood all year long.”
HR employees help feed hungry kids
Human Resources employees in Dallas reached out with gifts of healthy food and notes of support for needy fifth-graders who attend KIPP Academy, a free, open-enrollment, college prep, public charter school with a track record of preparing students in underserved communities for success in college and life.
KIPP partners with the North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) through its Food-4-Kids program, which provides backpacks filled with nutritious foods to needy students on Friday afternoons to last through the weekend. HR employees donated more than 30 boxes of healthy food and drinks that will be given to students who participate in this program throughout the holidays.
“It touches your heart to know that kids in our community may go to bed at night hungry,” Darla Whitaker, TI senior vice president of human resources said. “We are pleased to partner with KIPP and NTFB to help meet a big need in our community.”
Veterans Initiative brings multiple smiles
Partnering with a local nonprofit group, Operation Once in a Lifetime, the Veterans Initiative in Dallas collected new unwrapped toys, books, clothing and gift cards during the holidays. “We are anticipating that we will be able to surpass our goal of 788 items of toys, clothing and gift cards,” said Dena Hurst, Veterans Initiative chair. Operation Once in a Lifetime will distribute the gifts to area veterans so their children can enjoy the holidays.
Hungry: TIers gave back on #GivingTuesday
For the elderly, disabled and home-bound, a warm hand-delivered meal can be life-changing. That’s why on Tuesday, Dec. 1, about 400 TI employees volunteered with United Way of Metropolitan Dallas (UWMD), VNA North Texas and Collin County Meals on Wheels to deliver more than 1,100 warm meals to the elderly and home-bound across the Dallas area.
This event marked the third in UWMD’s Unite for Change Community Impact Series, planned to coincide with #GivingTuesday, a global social media initiative on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving dedicated to giving back.
You can read more here.
Maine Fab opens their hearts
Maine Fab's D night shift opened up their hearts and wallets for the five families they adopted. “There was a lot of Christmas spirit (as well as a few Santa’s and Elf’s) on our shift,” said Shirley McInnis, production supervisor. “Our group was extremely generous and many employees gave to our adopted families.” 
Each shift adopted a family. The families ranged in size from five to 11 members and employees bought several gifts for each member. Employees bought over 125 gifts and donated well over $500 in gift cards. The total donations exceeded $3,500. The local non-profit organization that employees partnered with to make holiday wishes come true is Opportunity Alliance, a Great Portland United Way agency.
Keeping Christmas traditions alive: TI Germany makes wishes come true for kids
Germany’s employees made Christmas wishes come true at children’s home St. Klara. For this yearly charity project, 60 individual wishes as well as eight wishes from groups were fulfilled. In addition, employees also donated money. The company doubled the amount donated by individuals making it a total of $4,000 Euros. Both, presents and checks, were presented to St. Klara in Freising on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
“It is always great to be able to support St. Klara for Christmas season. But rather than “just” making presents once, it is important for us to lend a helping hand throughout the whole year to make a real impact as part of our social engagements," said Wolfram Tietscher, general manager of TI Germany.
TI Germany has been supporting this Christmas project for 11 years now and provides all children with a wish list. Employees can then pick the wish they would like to fulfill either individually, as a group or department. They buy the present themselves, wrap it and write a personalized card to the respective child. As St. Klara just recently established a new living group for boys in Moosburg, close to Freising, there were even more wishes on this year’s Christmas list. All wishes were fulfilled – ranging from Legos to entry tickets for a local an amusement park.
St. Klara looks after 60 children and teenagers, which are either orphans or come from families with difficult living conditions. St. Klara offers them a home and qualified individual support. The main focus besides the assisted housing is on preparing them comprehensively for an independent living.
DFAB employees brings smiles
Partnering with Head Start of Greater Dallas, the DFAB employees sponsored by the Make Their Day Team filled a wish list for a single mother with three small children. The money was raised by donations and a bake sale. DFAB has participated in this program for 14 years.
GFAB makes a difference for 200 children
Greenock FAB employees have been collecting Christmas presents that will be distributed to families throughout their local area who are in need of additional support at this time of year. As ever, GFAB employees were very generous and almost 200 presents where collected.
“TI has been fantastic supporters of our Christmas Present appeal for the last eight years," said Maureen Pentland, Salvation Army coordinator. "This year we have many children who will benefit from our appeal including refugees who have recently arrived from Syria.”
GFAB employees have also been hosting Christmas lunches for all employees. At these lunches, seasonal goodies were on sale to raise money for Quarriers, a local charity that is one of the largest social care charities in Scotland. Andrew Burns of GFAB’s Community Care Team added “Quarriers is a lifeline to many people. Founded in the early 1870’s by William Quarrier, who was born in Greenock, it began caring for orphaned and destitute children. Today they provide practical care and support for vulnerable children, adults and families who face extremely challenging circumstances.”
Beijing volunteers enlighten the day of 27 children with STEM demonstrations
Beijing volunteers and their family took 27 autistic children to the China Science and Technology Museum and shared the day with them. To better care for the children, each volunteer was teamed up with two autistic children and took the role of museum guide to introduce the science knowledge and demos in the museum. Through the five-hour tour, volunteers helped the children communicate with them, developed trust from the children and showed the magic of science and technology. This is the first volunteer event organized by the Beijing Community Involvement Team.
“Joining the Community Involvement Team provides me the opportunity to realize my passion of citizenship with more colleagues,” said Vincent Zhang, member of Beijing CIT. “The greatest reward for the effort is seeing autistic children smiling and holding hands with our volunteers. It motivates me a lot and I’m eager to organize more volunteer activities in the near future.”
“My children really enjoy the day with volunteers, who not only accompany them, but more importantly, carefully learn about the children’s situation and communicate with them,” said mother of two autistic children. “Though it’s the first time they met, the children trust the volunteers a lot. I’m very glad, and surprised to see the children voluntarily hold hands with volunteers, something which has rarely happened before. Thank you so much for the love and care. And appreciate TI for its commitment to community.”
