In 2010, TI employees donated nearly 32,000 hours of their time serving as volunteers for organizations in their local communities. Each year, during National Volunteer Week, TI honors the outstanding community service efforts of individual employees and TI teams with TI Founders Community Service Awards.

"Supporting our local communities brings value to TI and is an integral part of the company’s culture and history," said Andy Smith, TI director of corporate philanthropy. "Having our employees engaged in the community gives them the opportunity to learn new skills, fosters teamwork and collaboration, represent TI and make our cities a better place to live and work."

This year, four individuals and two TI teams received the awards. Nominations were judged on several criteria, including the impact the volunteer work had on the community and the leadership the individual or team exhibited. An independent panel of judges named the following individuals and teams as 2011 winners.

Vijay Bhalla
Vijay Bhalla is committed to helping people in the Dallas area live happy and healthy lives. He was instrumental in starting the Greater Dallas Arya Samaj (GDAS) in 2005 and the GDAS Cancer Clinic in Plano for the uninsured in 2009. Read more about Bhalla.

Gregory Duperon
Gregory Duperon’s passion for helping people in need is broad. In addition to his work at the Salvation Army, he helps restore homes and churches through Habitat for Humanity and Rebuild Dallas and is on the planning committee for the 2011 Oak Cliff Earth Day event. Read more about Duperon.

Tonya Dixon-Muraguri
For Tonya Dixon-Muraguri, mentoring at-risk students is the volunteer activity that she enjoys most. She has given more than 500 girls much-needed guidance, support and encouragement during the last decade by serving as a mentor and advisor. Read more about Dixon-Muraguri.

Mauricio Ruiz
When Mauricio Ruiz returns to Nicaragua each year, it’s more than just a homecoming. Over the past 10 years, Ruiz and his family members have traveled to 10 different Nicaraguan communities to improve the lives of the families and individuals who live there. Read more about Ruiz.

TI Tucson Community Involvement Team
After the city of Tucson was hit extraordinarily hard by the global economic downturn in 2009, the team began looking for opportunities for TI employees to be actively involved in impacting their community and for the community to feel TI’s broad and deep reach. Read more about the team.

¡Unidos! Community Involvement Team
During the past five years, TI’s ¡Unidos! team members have raised almost $100,000 in funding and provided more than 500 volunteer hours to strategic programs that further the educational and creative growth of the Hispanic community. Read more about the team.

TI makes a $1,000 donation in the winners' honor to the nonprofit agencies for which they volunteered. St. Luke’s Home in Tucson, Arizona was chosen by the TI Tucson Community Involvement Team. Four of the organizations are in North Texas: GDAS Cancer Clinic in Plano (Vijay Bhalla); and in Dallas, Salvation Army (Gregory Duperon); Shirley A. Fridia Development Center, Inc. (Tonya Dixon-Muraguri); the American Red Cross (Mauricio Ruiz); and Mi Escuelita (¡Unidos! Community Involvement Team).

About the awards
The TI Founders Community Service Awards are named in honor of TI founders Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, Cecil Green and Pat Haggerty, who set the standard for TI employees to be involved in their communities.

Created last year for TI's 80th anniversary and managed in collaboration with the Volunteer Center of North Texas, these annual awards recognize TI employees who are nominated by their peers as outstanding volunteers.

The award winners were determined by a panel of judges from the community. This year's panel included representatives from the Dallas Women’s Foundation, The Volunteer Center of North Texas, the TI Foundation board of directors, the Richardson ISD board of trustees, and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

TI Founders Community Service Awards are being given in India for the first time this year. Ten nominations were received, and the award winners will be chosen the end of April.