This past Saturday, Cydcor team members, along with the principal and teacher from EARTHS Magnet School, celebrated spring by participating in the school's first gardening day! During the course of the day, the group pulled weeds, helped design and work on a butterfly garden, trimmed trees, and cleaned and completed other garden areas on campus. Cydcor has been working with the school for many months, tutoring children, providing meals for families over the holiday season, and creating a "giving tree" over the holidays, which allowed Cydcor team members to personally buy a gift for an individual child. This community outreach has taken a personal turn for many team members, who have found that working together to help others aligns perfectly with Cydcor's mission - and their own.

With the volunteer help Cydcor provided, the school is now able to execute plans they've had in the works for awhile, but didn't have the budget or time to complete. With Cydcor's assistance, they are able to accomplish many of these goals. Cydcor's goal? To continue volunteering and working with the school to create useful programs for the school. When Cydcor puts its mind to something, it can accomplish anything.

Team members at Cydcor recently came together and collected food for the company’s Thanksgiving canned food drive, which supported a local elementary school – and helped 100 families enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner. Cydcor donated 200 cans of green beans and 100 cans of corn and cranberries. They also donated 100 boxes of stuffing, 100 bags of potatoes, and 100 bags of homemade cookies – and provided a $15 gift card for each family to pick up a fresh turkey from the grocery store. An astounding amount of food…and an example of Cydcor’s commitment to giving back.

The Cydcor team members only had two weeks to gather all of the food and meet the company-wide goal, and they succeeded. They jumped at the opportunity to make a real difference in the local community. Two days before Thanksgiving, they went to the school and personally delivered the goods so that families could stop by throughout the day to pick up their Thanksgiving feast.

Cydcor is committed to improving the lives of others and consistently donates time and raises money for philanthropic organizations across the United States – most recently, the company, together with its network of independently-owned sales companies, raised $150,000 for Operation Smile – and were able to fund an entire mission!

What’s next in store for Cydcor?

I’m constantly amazed at the dedication, perseverance, and commitment of the participating independent sales companies and internal Cydcor team members, and I’m extremely proud that we have met yet another goal. Collectively, we have raised a total of $150,000 for Operation Smile; the funds will be used for a medical mission to a remote locale in Peru, Cambodia, or Rwanda. Amazing work by amazing, dedicated people.

How did we do this? By coming together and working hard to meet this important goal. In 2010, during our annual R&R event, Operation Smile Ambassador Barbara Majeski announced that all of the independent sales companies throughout the United States and Canada were invited to raise funds for Operation Smile, a children’s medical charity that provides free cleft lip and cleft palate reconstructive surgeries worldwide. Barbara had put the program together and introduced everyone to this cause, which she was extremely passionate about. Many of the sales companies immediately jumped on the opportunity, planning various fundraisers and events to get us closer to our goal. In fact, companies would often compete against each other, showing once again that once they put their minds to something, they accomplish it. At Cydcor, internal team members were working hard as well, raising funds among their family and friends and planning events throughout the year that would help them get to their internal goal.

I’m so happy to announce that we were able to meet the $150,000 goal this month! We did it, and I am extremely impressed by the motivation that each team had to make this a reality. Think about it: Because of the perseverance of our people, we are able to make a significant difference in the lives of children across the globe. They will be able to lead entirely different lives as a result of our hard work. As a people-helping-people business, this is just another example of how we can work together and make tremendous things happen.

The combined efforts of Cydcor along with our network of independent sales companies continue to make progress toward achieving our total fundraising goal for Operation Smile. With just a little over $30,000 left to raise, we’re on track to reach our $150,000 target.

Cydcor team members have led the charge, raising significant funds for this worthy medical mission through successful, high-energy charity events. Their passionate commitment shows no signs of slowing down and is ramping up for the upcoming casino night in May.

Thanks to all the participating independent sales company owners, Cydcor team members, the community and other supporters who are helping make this possible!

It's amazing what can be done when we all work together to make a difference. Cydcor along with our network of independent sales companies hit the $100,000 mark  for Operation Smile  - just $50,000 more to reach out goal to fund an entire Operation Smile Medical Mission. It has been inspiring to see what unique and fun ways we have come up with to raise money - bowling, stach for cash, car washes, auctions, raffles, you name it. The best part is - we won't stop till we hit our goal, because we have such an important cause to support.

“Our network of independent sales companies uses every interaction with a customer to build our clients’ brands,” said Vera Quinn, senior vice president of sales operations. “To watch that incredible focus and passion apply to raising funds for this very worthy cause has been amazing to witness.”

Cydcor’s Operation Smile ambassador, Barbara Majeski, summed up the company’s motivation in supporting the charity: “Every three minutes, a child is born with a cleft condition. Our employees are leaders in their communities all over the country in supporting their communities through service, so extending that to such an important cause was natural. The level of their generosity and commitment to others is what is truly astounding.”

At the beginning of every year, all Cydcor team members in North America get together to have our annual kickoff meeting. One of the highlights is what we do together make a difference in our community… and this time the world.

This year, Cydcor held a charity bowling event at the AMF Bowling Center in Woodland Hills to benefit Operation Smile. As an extra incentive, Cydcor  team members earned raffle tickets based on the amount they collected. The tickets went into drawings for experiences with key executives, such as wine-tasting or attending a Los Angeles Lakers game.

We had a blast and raised more than $3,440 for Operation Smile, a children's medical charity that provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide.

By adding the bowl-a-thon donations to our fundraising efforts, we will help Operation Smile fulfill their goals, which include providing safe, effective reconstructive surgeries and helping dedicated medical volunteers provide these procedures to the children who need them.

We are just steps away, or shall we say strikes away, from hitting our $150,000 goal!

To see the full release, click here . Visit our smile page here.

Today we named Operation Smile this year's official corporate cause.  The international children's medical charity treats facial deformities, such as cleft lips and palates, around the globe.  We are partnering with its network of independently owned and operated offices to raise funds for the organization.

This is the first time Cydcor has adopted a charitable organization of this scale – it's a great way to exercise team building among our offices and we are proud to support an organization that improves the quality of so many lives.

We are partnering with our network of independently owned and operated sales companies to reach a goal of$150,000 in order to support an Operation Smile medical mission, currently slated to take place in Peru. Sales Companies are establishing their own "smile" campaign support pages and have fundraising goals starting at$1,000 per office.  Cydcor has established its own "smile" page with a goal of $21,000 – enough to pay for 90 surgeries, each costing approximately $240.

"The need for quality cleft care is urgent; there are so many children around the world who desperately need our help," said Dr. Bill Magee, Founder and CEO of Operation Smile. "We are grateful for the generosity of our supporters and volunteers. It is only with their help that we can continue to give new smiles and transform the lives of our patients."

Click here to read the full release or coverage on The Daily Tell.

We kicked off our Cydcor Cares program at the Boys and Girls Club in Thousand Oaks, California this month. The event was designed to help kids become more interested in reading. Cydcor office team members dressed up as their favorite fictional characters and read to children in kindergarten through fourth grade.

The Bookaneer, a local used bookstore in Thousand Oaks,  donated dozens of children’s fiction titles to help support the event. Owner, Tracy Benedict, was thrilled with the results and  thanked Cydcor for making it a priority to give back to their local community and for providing such a great program for children to participate in.

Read more about Cydcor Cares and this event at The Daily Tell.

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Cydcor is proud that its Neighborhood Leader Program has reached significant milestones. To date, more than 500 team members from the various independent Cydcor offices throughout the United States and Canada have dedicated almost 300 hours to their local communities through charity and volunteer work – helping more than 28 organizations.

Organizations helped in various local communities through the Neighborhood Leader Program include the Lupus Alliance of America, Feed the Children, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Make-a-Wish, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Project Bread, the Boys & Girls Club, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the American Cancer Society, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the March of Dimes, and a number of food banks and animal rescues and sanctuaries.

To further demonstrate dedication to the Cydcor Community, the company recently formed a new program, Cydcor Cares, which will enable internal employees to band together and use their eight allotted volunteer hours that Cydcor offers on a yearly basis. The Cydcor Cares first event will take place at the Thousand Oaks Boys and Girls Club, where Cydcor team members will read to children from kindergarten to fourth-grade age.

Click here to read more.

We’re expanding our community outreach efforts through a new program called “Cydcor Cares”. Through this program our team members will volunteer and donate time to local organizations, such as food kitchens, literacy programs at public libraries, and “adopt” elementary schools, providing services such as tutoring, reading, music, and drama/coaching. Cydcor’s team members can also volunteer their expertise to business building programs in the community, such as interviewing, resume building, and career coaching.

We think it’s because of programs like this that Cydcor was named one of the Best Places to Work in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal both in 2008 and 2009.

Click here to read more about this program. .

The Cydcor sales teams got together recently to collect over 50 pounds of trash and debris at Zuma Beach with Heal the Bay - a nonprofit dedicated to making Southern California coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean.

Click here to see a video recap of the clean-up efforts.