Kindness to the rescue.
How the V Team is stepping up in a big way — and how you can too.
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On today’s Up To Speed Live, host Diana Alvear shared the following updates:
Leadership Forum
Get ready for next Monday. We will be live from the Leadership Forum with Hans at 12 PM ET/9 AM PT. You’ll be hearing the latest VZPulse survey results, an update on Work Forward and much more.
Winter storms
Snow. Freezing temperatures. Tornadoes. It’s been a rough week for much of the southern United States, particularly in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Georgia. Our Verizon Response Team has been working hard to keep people connected and assisting at warming shelters.
Data relief
We are offering customers in these ZIP codes access to unlimited domestic Talk, Text & Data through February 20.
VtoV for you and me
A reminder that the VtoV Employee Relief Fund is always here to help employees in need. If you’d like to do your part, you can give to support V Teamers displaced by these storms and other natural disasters.
Donate to support warming centers
To help those impacted by this week’s storms, we also have a mobile giving campaign. You can pitch in one of two ways:
- Text REDCROSS to 90999 to give a one-time $10 donation to the American Red Cross, which is supporting 35 warming centers with cots and blankets.
- Text RESCUE to 52000 to give a one-time $10 donation to the Salvation Army USA, which is providing shelter, food, and other necessary items to those in need.
Meals on Wheels
We have a great story to share from Tulsa, OK, where Solutions Manager Kevin Smith refused to let a blizzard slow him down. While his store was closed for the day, he signed up to volunteer for “Meals on Wheels,” a nonprofit organization that serves food to seniors in the community. Kevin loaded his truck and delivered 70 meals to Tulsa seniors. Way to go, Kevin. Thanks for all that you do!
A truly heartwarming story
Abir Kazzaz is a Network Engineer who recently moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She was in her home alone earlier this week when the storm and rolling blackouts caused the temperature in her house to plummet. She spent hours in her car until she ran out of gas, then went through all of her firewood. An email asking if anyone could help went out quickly, many offered assistance, including Network Engineering and Operations Associate Director James Horton and his son, who drove their truck from over an hour away to deliver firewood and gas to Abir. It’s so great to see the V Team community coming together when help is needed.
If you know of a V Teamer doing their part to help their local communities, tag us on social @vzuptospeed using #ACallforKindness or send it to good@verizon.com.
A fast car in every sense
Did you see the #33 Team Penske car in action at the Daytona 500 earlier this week? Driver Austin Cindric avoided multiple crashes to finish 15th. Maybe it’s easier to be fast when your car is labeled with Verizon 5G!
In addition, NASCAR used BlueJeans to conduct their 2021 Safety and Operations Summit. The folks who attend are responsible for keeping things safe and orderly. On and off the track, Verizon is there.
Verizon Business news
Verizon Business and Cisco announced three new SD WAN managed service offerings, which provide enterprise customers with more options for building a flexible and agile networking infrastructure. It's another way to help our customers meet the ever-increasing demands of today's world, leveraging innovative solutions brought forth by long-time trusted partners.
Congrats to the team and Aamir Hussain who leads Business Products for the Verizon Business Group.
Verizon Ventures
Also this week, YBVR, which is a next-generation XR video distribution platform, secured funding through Verizon Ventures. YBVR provides instantaneous 360-degree streaming through deployment on our previously announced AWS Wavelength with Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband network. This will make immersive sports and music events more real for the audience.
Citizen Verizon
As many of you know, one of the key pillars of Citizen Verizon is climate protection. This week, our efforts were recognized by Barron’s, which ranked us #9 on their 100 Most Sustainable Companies list. Congratulations, us!
As a reminder, we are also part of the Climate Pledge, which reiterates our commitment to become carbon neutral in our operations by 2035. We are also currently working on additional on-site renewable energy by installing 24 Megawatts of solar by 2025. That's some energizing news.
Up next for #Next20
We’ve got a new #Next20 episode coming next Tuesday, February 23, at 2 PM ET/11 AM PT. This time, we’re talking about Black women and leadership. In a collaboration with BOLD Sister to Sister, Yahoo! reporter and host, Brittany Jones-Cooper will sit down with political strategist and CEO of IMPACT Strategies, Angela Rye, and executive coach and facilitator Sheri Raynard, to discuss the challenges Black women continue to face and what we must do to achieve equality and equity. Watch live on Verizon's Twitter handle, @Verizon https://twitter.com/Verizon
Random Acts of Kindness
Monica Stephansky, Marketing Manager from Warrendale, PA shared the following: “February 17th holds a special place in my heart. On that date three years ago, my mom was gratefully a recipient of a bilateral lung transplant in the hopes of having a chance for a new life. Unfortunately, as a high-risk patient, her journey did not go how we had hoped. So now, on February 17th, in honor of Grammi and National Random Act of Kindness Day, we do something special for someone. Last year, my children passed out happy messages and candy to their preschool classrooms. This year, we donated cleaning supplies to my oldest's kindergarten class and homemade cards for their classrooms. We are using this hard day to honor kindness knowing mom would be proud!”
Monica, thank you for sharing your story and for turning your pain into kindness for others.
If you have any questions, email them to live@verizon.com.
Click here for a transcript of the webcast.
Get the latest information on our Coronavirus Resource Page (Inside Verizon, The Street).
