An idea about combining charity with employee engagement was conceived over lunch by a Financial Services Senior Manager and the Greater China Corporate Citizenship Lead Executive. In order to promote an awareness of corporate citizenship as well as to involve the participation of staff across the whole of Greater China (GC), they decided to initiate an Accenture-sponsored cycle event around the largest lake in China, biking in challenging conditions, to raise money for very poor and needy schools. And so the cycling event at Qinghai Lake was born!
Jeff Beg, event sponsor, commented “Given that this is the first time such an event had been organized across all the Greater China locations, we decided to restrict the number of cycling participants to a manageable group of around 20 – 25 people”. In fact there was an overwhelming response – well over 60 applications were received which were streamed down to 22. The final cyclist team amounted to seven from Beijing, two from Dalian, one from Guangzhou, two from Hong Kong and seven from Shanghai. Among these were four Senior Executives.
While the selection of cyclists was taking place, donation activity also kicked off through a dedicated website and managed by the Event Committee with representatives from the different GC work locations. A donation target of RMB100K was set and scheduled to run for six weeks. To add to the build-up, a friendly competition was established amongst the cyclists as well as DTE in terms of the donation amount raised. Each cyclist was responsible to drive their donation collection, and finally, at the end of the sixth week, a total of RMB200k was collected!! The generosity and commitment of Greater China employees ensured the event was a huge success.
Participants trained hard to improve their fitness levels in preparation for the challenging cycling conditions. In September 2007 a total of 150km was covered in three days with three school visits slotted into the overall schedule. On the first day of the bike ride the team cycled in the rain with temperatures as low as 2-3 degrees Celcius. Weather conditions improved on the second day and finally, lots of sunshine on the last day! Due to the high altitude of over 3000 meters, some of the participants experienced headaches and shortness of breath. However, everyone persevered and completed the planned cycle route within the allocated timeframe!
The donation amount was allocated to the three schools visited in the Qinghai Lake area – two are full boarding schools with more than 750 students with the third being a small day village school. Donation items such as duvets, stationary, school supplies, sports equipment an basketball court were distributed to each school. Due to the high altitude of Qinghai Lake and its proximity to the coldest part of Northern China, the area experiences harsh winter conditions 10 months of each year.
Everyone who cycled or helped hailed the bike ride as one of the most successful events that the Greater China Corporate Citizenship team has organized. Accenture intends to repeat this charity/employee engagement formula on an annual basis in a different location.
One of the cyclists sums up his experience "Qinghai - a combination of rain, wind, elevation, yaks, cycles and friends - what better way to spend 4 days exercising for a good cause to help many needy children make their lives a little more comfortable. Thanks, Accenture, for the opportunity to be involved!"