CA, Samsung brighten our children’s future

In a week when the news about children ranges from a resurgence of polio in Africa to prescribing Prozac for teens, it’s worth remembering that many good things also befall young people. This column focuses on two examples — significant charitable efforts, both aimed at kids, from Computer Associates and Samsung.

CA has long been a child-friendly company, with on-site day care and the like, in part because founder Charles Wang believed it was important. Today, more than 2,000 CA employees — 15 percent of its workforce — donate some working hours to child-focused charities in the United States and 42 other countries. They teach classes, build playgrounds, and set up IT systems, all in communities where they live and work. “By giving back, we are really taking a stake in these communities,” explains Lisa Platania, director of community relations.

In October 2000, the company upped its ante again with the Digital Schoolhouse program. Now, brightly painted Digital Schoolhouse buses bring local fifth graders to high-tech classrooms in Islandia, N.Y., and Lisle, Ill., outside Chicago. There, the kids learn about computers and the Internet under the tutelage of CA’s full-time teachers and employee volunteers. Lisa Mars, CA’s vice president of finance and administration, heads the program. She says more than 20,000 students have visited the Digital Schoolhouse since its inception — and that rate will undoubtedly rise when classrooms open this fall in Herndon, Va., and the London suburbs.

Samsung is another company with a long charitable tradition, but its latest effort on behalf of children grew indirectly from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “We watched the fire burning and people jumping from windows,” recalls Senior Vice President Peter Weedfald, who witnessed the tragedy from a few dozen blocks away. The company quickly donated $1 million to the Red Cross. But Weedfald and others at Samsung wanted to do something even more directly related to children.

The result is Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope, a charitable program that has raised $3.1 million for a variety of charities, with the help of sports figures such as baseball’s Joe Torre and basketball’s Magic Johnson, plus four major retailers (Best Buy, Circuit City, CompUSA, and Sears), and other partners. The latest celebrity to join the team is pop star Jon Bon Jovi, who performed at a recent luncheon that raised $511,000.

And that, says Weedfald, is only the beginning. “If every child in the world could grow up with good health, a supporting family, and a solid education, maybe people would focus on that instead of fighting each other,” he says. We join Samsung in that wish. i