Giving Back with a Merry Virtual Christmas

Christmas is a time of giving and a time to connect with family and friends. For many children, there’s one person they always wish to meet with – Santa Claus. At Cisco, if you can imagine it, we will build a bridge to get you there. And so, we did!

On 23 Dec 2020, our Cisco Singapore employees volunteered with AWWA virtually. Our Cisco Webex technology enabled us to partner with the educators to bring some festive fun to the special needs children without being physically present, thereby adhering to social distancing guidelines. Giving back is an important part of our culture in Cisco, and the pandemic wasn’t going to stop us.

As the official conferencing sponsor of the Virtual Christmas Wonderland 2020, we bought tickets and partnered with Blue Sky Events (organizers for Virtual Christmas Wonderland 2020) to create a memorable experience for the children at the school.

Children chatting with Santa Claus via the Webex Board.

We set up Webex Boards (all-in-one video conferencing and digital whiteboarding devices) in the classrooms and connected Santa Claus over video. The children had a blast as they chatted, sang, and danced with Santa via the Webex Board.

After that, our employees joined via Webex and conducted an art & craft session where the children used stickers to piece together images of Santa Claus, and Rudolph the Reindeer. As the children excitedly ran up to the Webex Board to show off their progress and artwork via the camera, it was almost as if we were there with them in the same room. We even took group photos virtually, as the children showed off their Christmas gifts from the volunteers.

Children interacting with Cisco volunteers remotely.  Proudly showing his artwork for the camera

Thank you to everyone involved for bringing Santa and smiles to the children at AWWA Special Student Care Centre this Christmas. This was a great learning experience for the Cisco team as we found new ways to volunteer and give back, even during these unusual times. I look forward to seeing how our Cisco Singapore team will grow and make an even bigger impact on the community in 2021!