GoogleServe 2010: Celebrating community service worldwide

This month, Googlers around the world participated in GoogleServe—an annual event in which Google employees take a break from their day jobs to re-connect with local communities and give back through service projects. Over 6,000 Googlers from 65 offices in 27 countries spent time in activities ranging from helping the elderly get online and consulting with organizations on their social-media strategies to tidying up public parks and playing with dogs waiting to be rehomed.

GoogleServe began in 2008 as an employee-driven initiative and is organized almost entirely by volunteers. For the 2010 event, we partnered with hundreds of community organizations, schools and governments to help meet local needs around the world. Here’s a taste of some of this year’s projects:

• We tilled soil and planted seedlings at Gaining Ground in Concord, Massachusetts
• We packed food bags for families living under the breadline at Resala in Cairo, Egypt and delivered meals to the needy in San Francisco, California with the Salvation Army
• We trained senior citizens in Dublin, Ireland and Santa Monica, California to engage more effectively in the online world
• We cleaned kitty condos in Milpitas, California at the Humane Society of Silicon Valley and repaired a road leading to the animal shelter at Tier-Asyl Hübeli, in Zurich, Switzerland
• We cleaned rooms, tended gardens and helped out on art projects at Singapore’s Association of the Visually Handicapped
• We repaired playground equipment in Hamburg, Germany, painted classrooms in Johannesburg, South Africa and folded 1,000 origami cranes for sick children in Tokyo, Japan

Check out our album below to see some of our employees and partners in action. And if you'd like to join us in service to your community, websites like All For Good can help you find volunteer opportunities near you.



Posted by Seth Marbin, GoogleServe Global Director