​When the call for volunteering came, the Cisco Singapore team answered! Proudly wearing their recognizable blue Cisco tees, they embarked on their mission to pay it forward by spending the morning of Friday, August 19, at Willing Hearts.

Willing Hearts is a non-profit organization that cooks and distributes 9,000 daily meals every day to more than 70 locations in Singapore. The organization recently moved to their new facility, an old school, as they expanded their scope beyond meals to include helping the homeless in Singapore.

Mission: Possible

That is where the Cisco team landed – cleaning and setting up the facilities, making the premises ready for use and helping Willing Hearts get off to a running start. Breaking up into smaller groups, each team armed with the cleaning equipment and tools went about their assignments to sweep and clean every corner of the three levels assigned to Cisco. That included 15-plus rooms, stairwells, windows, floors, toilets, common areas, cleaning and arranging furniture, and landscaping the garden patches!

Putting their backs into it and applying the needed elbow grease, the smiling team motored their way, making the facility sparkly and squeaky clean! A special shout out to the Muscle Team, who did the heavy lifting, wheelbarrow moving, soil management, and gardening on what was a particularly hot day!

At the end of it, the facility was ready for Willing Hearts’ homeless beneficiaries to pick up some vocational skills (IT, sewing, hairdressing, and more) to prepare them and make them self-sufficient for the future.

Cisconians: People with Passion and a Purpose

Volunteering and giving back to the communities where we live and work has always been part of our DNA at Cisco. The pandemic certainly made volunteering opportunities more difficult to do in person the past few years, let alone with a group of employees. But with conditions improving overall and employees returning to the office, the Cisco Singapore team was ready to get out there and give back and create better days in a big way!

Cisconians went above and beyond to give back. 135 volunteers put in the work needed – 405 hours – to deliver cleaned and prepared premises for Willing Hearts as they started a fresh chapter. We’re especially chuffed about two things:

One, this was the largest group of Cisco volunteers for a giving back event!

Two, this was the largest group so far to turn up at Willing Hearts to help and donate their time!

Giving back has always been ingrained in us and is an integral part of our Conscious Culture. We look forward to doing more this year!

#WeAreCisco #GPTW

Learn more about Willing Hearts: https://willinghearts.org.sg/

This article was originally published here.