Earlier this month, celebrities, professional athletes and hundreds of riders with and without disabilities joined forces for the fifth annual Audi Best Buddies Challenge: Hearst Castle. Team CSC-Saxo Bank’s Bobby Julich led a CSC team of 35 employees, partners and clients, who together raised more than $47,000 for Best Buddies.

CSC team captain Joe Amato, managing director of CSC’s Global Business Services office in San Francisco, says, “It’s a really unique and rewarding event. Due to our very positive experience last year we easily doubled the size of our team this year including many returning riders.  A ‘century’ ride can be a physical and mental challenge but participating as a team gets you through. It’s great to have CSC support such a worthwhile cause in our community and bring the visibility and fundraising to Best Buddies.”

He adds that Julich’s participation was a highlight and inspiration for the other cyclists. “It was great for our clients and partners to be able to spend some time and talk with Bobby about his experience as a professional rider.”

Participants chose to ride a 100-, 62- or 15-mile course along California’s picturesque Pacific Coast Highway. The day also included a run/walk event, as well as a post-race celebration with pop band “Black Eyed Peas.”

This year’s Challenge raised more than $3.6 million for Best Buddies, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. To learn more and sign up for next year’s race, visit the event’s Web site. 

Cheered on by a crowd of 700, a 40-person conga line — including CSC’s global chief learning officer, Office of Innovation vice president and vice president for culture change — shuffles and kicks its way through an Orlando, Fla., ballroom, while onstage 20 black-clad CSC musicians from nine different countries play Love Shack with full B-52’s attitude.

It’s 10 o’clock on the second night of CSC’s 2008 Technology & Business Solutions Conference. Two hours into an electrifying show that opened with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Travelin’ Band, both the audience and the performers are still going strong.

“Music is a global unifier, a universal language,“ says vocalist and CSC business process architect Jill McNeil, the driving force behind CSC’s Global Jam. “Even if your mannerisms or culture or idioms are misunderstood country to country, music like oldies rock and roll is something everyone can tune into and share at the very deepest level.“

As the band seamlessly segues from Love Shack to the Eurythmics’ Sweet Dreams — with Gwennie Collins, a global security solutions learning manager from Annapolis, Md., at the microphone — it’s hard to believe that, just two days before, most of the members not only had never performed together but had never even met face-to-face. (Read entire story.)

Thanks to generous pledges to the “CSC Gives Back to Military Families” campaign, CSC and its employees raised over $391,000 to help fund a Fisher House “comfort home” on the grounds of the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

Our donations will make a vital difference in the lives of those who have given so much to us. Thanks to all employees for giving back to our U.S. military families. Want to contribute? The campaign may be over, but you can still contribute to this important endeavor. For more information, visit the Fisher House or CharityWorks Web site.