Making the Holidays Happier for Children Worldwide
Booz Allen and hundreds of volunteers continue a favorite tradition with support for Toys for Tots and NORAD Tracks Santa.
Again this year, as many years before, Booz Allen Hamilton will bring holiday cheer to children in the U.S. and throughout the world with its support for NORAD Tracks Santa (NTS) and Toys for Tots.
For more than 50 years, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has used the media, a special phone number, and its website—www.noradsanta.org—to provide children worldwide with updates on Santa Claus’ location as he travels the globe on Christmas Eve.
NORAD relies on help from corporate partners to operate the NTS project, and Booz Allen contributed for the first time in 2007 by coordinating the effort among the NTS website partners and designing and developing the site.
Children will track Santa’s visits around the world in seven languages when the site again goes live on December 1, 2008. Almost 11 million unique visitors from 212 countries and territories around the world viewed the site in December 2007.
This year, Booz Allen also expects its staff to continue its consistently large and enthusiastic participation in the Toys for Tots campaign. According to the U.S. Marine Corps, over 13 million children are living in poverty in America. “Booz Allen is concerned about their future, and Toys of Tots participation is just one way the firm gives back,” says principal Joe Suarez.
Since 1947, when Marine Corps reservists in Los Angeles collected 5,000 toys for children in need, Toys for Tots has continued its unique American tradition and expanded it nationwide, providing new toys to children who may otherwise go without during the holidays. Booz Allen has supported the nonprofit Marine Toys for Tots Foundation—the fundraising arm of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program—since its founding in 1991.
Volunteers make the Toys for Tots drive a success by purchasing a toy or donating money online to deliver a message of hope to disadvantaged children that they are not forgotten.
In 2007, 3,205 toys were donated by Booz Allen offices nationwide. In addition, $14,670 was donated online by the firm’s employees, with offices in New York City, McLean, Herndon, Virginia, and Rockville, Maryland leading the way. The foundation purchases toys at discounted prices to make the most of every dollar donated.
Volunteers from all Booz Allen sites can coordinate Toys of Tots toy drives and toy donations at their offices by contacting their local Marine Corps Toys for Tots coordinator, setting a date for the drive, and designating a local chapter at which the toys can be dropped off. Each participating office should count the donated toys so that the Community Relations department can keep track of a national total.
Reaching Children in All Corners of the World
In addition to Toys for Tots, Booz Allen will brighten the holidays for children on a global scale by contributing to the NTS effort again in 2008.
This year, the staff in Colorado Springs, assisted by Booz Allen teams such as the Systems Resource Center (SRC), refreshed the NTS website by making modifications and adding activities and information in accordance with client requests and user feedback.
Says associate Kim Gerber, “We added a seventh language this year—Chinese. In 2007, China was in top 10 in terms of users.” The site also supports English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.
The team restored the much-requested holiday music by the U.S. Air Force Academy and Canadian NADEN Band of Maritime Force Pacific and created a media player with which users can listen to it. They also updated the Countdown Calendar with daily children’s activities and added new games.
“One game lets children help Santa stack presents efficiently on his sleigh so he can fit in as many as possible without any falling out,” Gerber explains. “Our create-a-snowman game is also popular, where children select eyes, a nose, mouth, and so on to build their own snowman.”
Booz Allen collaborated with other corporations in the NTS effort including Google, which took on an even larger role in 2008. Dynamic tracking is incorporated into the site using Google Maps to provide 2-D globe tracking, Google Earth to provide 3-D globe tracking, and Web hosting, which tracks Santa and provides location updates every five minutes. Google also provided all the translations for the website.
On Christmas Eve, members of Booz Allen’s Colorado Springs staff will volunteer once more at the NTS Operations Center at Peterson Air Force base. The center operates only on December 24 each year, beginning at 4 a.m. MST, when children call 1.877.HI NORAD and ask about Santa’s location. Last year, 77 Booz Allen staff and family members helped answer phones.
“NTS is such an exciting tradition for the kids, and it’s one of the most enjoyable and rewarding projects we participate in each year,” Gerber says.
story posted December 8, 2008
