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Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tech Citizenship
Local techs lending a hand
By Mass High Tech staff
MHT's Doug Banks: 10 Women to Watch in tech
MHT managing editor Rodney Brown on NECN: 22 tech companies give back to community
Flash Slideshow: Mass High Tech All-Stars Thought Leadership Roundtable
Vertex holds first companywide 'day of service'
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. encouraged 800 employees to take part in Vertex’s first companywide Day of Service, which was held Sept. 18. As part of the Day of Service, roughly 600 employees at Vertex’s headquarters in Cambridge, and 100 employees in San Diego, 6 in Iowa and 80 in the U.K., took part in volunteer activities. Vertex plans to hold the Day of Service event annually, allowing its employees the opportunity to spend one day a year volunteering at a variety charities and community organizations. The event, officially known as the Joshua Boger Day of Service, was held to honor Vertex’s founder and longtime CEO, Joshua Boger, who retired earlier this year. Boger served at the Greater Boston Food Bank as part of the Day of Service and also spoke to 40 students taking part in science experiments at Vertex’s headquarters. As part of the Day of Service, Vertex employees supported a variety of nonprofit and community organizations, including several focused on stimulating students’ interest in science.
Burns & Levinson to give $15K to student inventor
Burns & Levinson LLP kicked off its fifth annual Power of an Idea scholarship contest, a creative competition that the law firm hopes will draw scores of student applicants from Boston public high schools and charter schools. The contest gives students an opportunity to become “Boston’s Next Young Inventor” by creating an invention and taking the idea from concept to creation to patent. According to competition rules, Boston public high school and charter school students in grades 9 through 12 are eligible to compete for the chance to win the $15,000 scholarship to be used for higher education tuition and expenses. As part of the prize package, Burns & Levinson will provide legal patent services for the winning device, machine or process. Last May, Min Zhong, a senior at Charlestown High School, took first-place honors in the contest. Zhong invented the “New Medical Alert System,” an intricate locking system used in emergency medical situations. She is now a freshman at Tufts University, where she is studying mechanical engineering.
Staples helps Jumpstart reading event with $20K grant
Staples Inc. awarded a $20,000 grant to Jumpstart, a Boston-based national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that every child in America enters school prepared to succeed, during an event earlier this month in which Jumpstart sought to set a world record for the largest shared-reading experience. The fourth annual Read for the Record program was expected to connect one million pre-schoolers with adults to read Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” aloud in classrooms, libraries and homes. In Massachusetts, 4,000 children pledged to participate in the event, including 100 local preschoolers at Southern Middlesex Opportunity Council, a nonprofit that advocates for low-income families and individuals. Staples gave each child a copy of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” for them to read at home. Last year, nearly 700,000 readers shared the children’s tale, “Corduroy.” Jumpstart’s Read for the Record, presented in partnership with Pearson and now in its fourth year, has raised more than $3 million to support Jumpstart’s mission with more than half a million books donated to children in need, according to the organization.
Dana-Farber reaches billion-dollar goal
The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston last month reached its goal to raise $1 billion, through its Mission Possible: The Dana-Farber Campaign to Conquer Cancer — one year earlier than planned. According to hospital officials, Dana-Farber is the first hospital in New England to set and reach a $1 billion campaign goal. The institute will continue to raise funds for campaign priorities until Sept. 30, 2010, when the campaign was scheduled to end. The Mission Possible campaign has created new avenues of research and new treatment options, but more work remains to be done, according to Institute officials. Dana-Farber is committed to continue fundraising through the end of the campaign and beyond until the promise of personalized medicine is available for each patient. Between 2001 and 2008, outpatient visits and infusions at Dana-Farber more than doubled, from nearly 128,000 to more than 264,000. The number of clinical trials available to Dana-Farber patients increased nearly 80 percent, from 409 trials to 735. To date, more than 1.7 million gifts of all sizes were received, with 107 gifts of $1 million or more, and 703 gifts of $100,000 or more.
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