DALLAS, April 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments (TI) announced today the winners of its third annual TI Founders Community Service Awards, honoring 12 individuals and three teams of volunteers for their outstanding community service efforts worldwide. For each award, TI will give $1,000 to the nonprofit agency that the volunteers served. This year's total $15,000 contribution will benefit communities near TI sites in Dallas and Plano, Texas; Santa Clara, California; Manchester, New Hampshire; Shanghai, China; Freising, Germany; Bangalore, India; Aizu, Japan; Melaka, Malaysia; and Greenock, Scotland.

Each year, during the U.S. National Volunteer Week (this year April 16-20), TI honors the contributions its employees make toward building a better future for the communities where the company operates. In 2011, TI employees tracked 35,200 volunteer hours and donated countless hours of their own time globally.

"TI employees around the world are actively involved in volunteering in their local communities, which was evidenced by the more than 120 exceptional nominations submitted this year," said Andy Smith, TI director of corporate philanthropy.

"Giving back to our communities is part of our corporate culture. We know that strong companies build strong communities, and in turn strong communities make us a stronger company.  Volunteering gives employees the opportunity to learn new skills, build teamwork and collaboration, and it also makes TI and our cities stronger. We are proud to recognize and support the passion and commitment of TI employees from all over the world."

Nominations were judged on several criteria, including the impact the volunteer work had on the community and the leadership that the individual or team exhibited. An independent panel of judges named the following individuals and teams as 2012 winners:

Sangili "Vadi" Gnanavadivel
Bangalore, India
For 15 years, Gnanavadivel has been organizing two blood donation camps a year at TI in association with the Rotary-TTK Blood Bank. The blood bank distributes the life-saving donations free of charge to government-run hospitals and the poor and needy people in Bangalore.

Lillian Griggs
Santa Clara, CA
Through Griggs' support and leadership, the Sacred Heart Community Service's Produce Bagging Program has provided 10,000 people in the Bay Area a full bag of fresh produce every Saturday during the past four years.

Janheng Huang
Chengdu, China
Huang is an active volunteer for the Tzu Chi Foundation, which helps needy students in the remote mountain area of Sichuan, China. In addition to organizing local volunteer and fundraising activities that benefit students in the foundation's six schools, Huang frequently visits the students and encourages others in his community to serve as volunteers.  

Mayumi Kogure
Aizu, Japan
During the past 13 months, Kogure has committed more than 300 volunteer hours to helping tsunami and nuclear plant evacuees displaced by the destruction that resulted from the large earthquake that struck northern Japan on March 11, 2011. A grant on behalf of Kogure will be made to the Japan Car Sharing Association, an agency that helps provide transportation for the evacuees.

Michael Kraus
Freising, Germany
Helping people in need is very important to Kraus. Each year, he dedicates more than 200 hours serving as a volunteer paramedic and leader of a Red Cross emergency response team that provides technical and medical services at large accidents and events in his German community. A grant on behalf of Kraus will be made to Bayerisches Rotes Kreuz, Kreisverband Freising (Red Cross).

Matthew Ladin
Plano, TX
Ladin has volunteered countless hours serving the Vickery Meadow Neighborhood Alliance (VMNA). The VMNA is a coalition of community partners that banded together in 2009 to fight hunger with unified strength in one of the most economically-depressed neighborhoods in Dallas.

Joshua Ling
Melaka, Malaysia
Helping people get back on their feet again is one of the main reasons that Ling decided to volunteer his time and services at Befrienders Melaka (also known as Malacca). This nonprofit agency provides emotional support to people who are suicidal or in distress.

Olga Pope
Plano, TX
Inspired by a speech that President Barack Obama gave about being a more active citizen, Pope became a volunteer at Hope's Door. She provides child care for women who have experienced domestic violence so they can attend group therapy and individual counseling sessions.

Dave Rebidue
Manchester, NH
In just three years, Rebidue and his dedicated team of volunteers have recruited more than 300 walkers and raised over $50,000 for the Alliance for Lupus Research.

Rob Shaw
Manchester, NH
Shaw helps people who have faced a crisis in his New Hampshire community return to a life of self sufficiency through the Front Door Agency. He has been a member of the agency's Board of Directors (formerly the Nashua Pastoral Care Center) since 2006.

Surinder Singh
Dallas, TX
Singh has devoted himself to supporting The Kalgidhar Trust/Society's mission. The trust supports rural communities in northern India that have no educational prospects and suffer from rampant drug abuse and violence against women and girls.

Shannee Tong
Santa Clara, CA
Every Wednesday during the school year, Tong spends her evening at East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy (EPAPA) serving as a college mentor to students in their senior class. She helps students, who are first generation immigrants, prepare for acceptance at a four-year college or university.

Greenock Community Care Team (CCT)
Lynn Cannie,Deborah McCallum, Karen McGhee, George Robertson, Kay Murdoch,  Alison Waters, Martha Deeney and
Krishnananda Nayak
Greenock, Scotland
During the past 12 years, the members of Greenock's CCT have donated more than $250,000 to approximately 800 charities in the Inverclyde area of Scotland. The team has also provided grants to local charities in which GFAB employees were active volunteers. A grant on behalf of the CCT will be made to Quarries, a charity that cares for children and adults with disabilities.

Korean Diversity Initiative (KDI) CIT GDKS Team
Sang-Yong Lee, Brandon Jung, Kil-Soo Ko, Donghoon Han, Do-Kyoung Kwon and Ki-Don Lee
Dallas, Texas
Through their unwavering volunteer support, TI's Dallas-based Korean Diversity Initiative Community Involvement Team's  Greater Dallas Korean School (GDKS) volunteers have directly impacted more than 1,500 Korean-American students in North Texas since 2003.

TEXIN Caring Volunteer Team
Eldon Ding, Sera Hu, Bessy Huang, Chris Liu, Shannon Luo, Jenny Sun, Ryan Wang, Gary Wu and Ting Zhao
Shanghai, China
These dedicated TI team members care about the children in their community who have autism. Not many people pay attention to this group of children in China, so the team has taken the lead to pay attention to them. A grant on behalf of the TEXIN Caring Volunteer Team will be made to the Shanghai Qingcongquan Training Center for Children with Special Needs.

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

Created in 2010 for TI's 80th anniversary, and managed in collaboration with the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the TI Founders Community Service Awards recognize employees worldwide. The award winners were determined by a panel of judges who work outside of TI. This year's panel included representatives from Silicon Valley Education Foundation; Maine Math and Science Alliance; Beijing Vantone Foundation; the Greenock Arts Guild; Christel House in India; The Asia Foundation in Malaysia; Communities Foundation of Texas; Volunteer Center of North Texas; and United Way of Metropolitan Dallas.

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments semiconductor innovations help 80,000 customers unlock the possibilities of the world as it could be – smarter, safer, greener, healthier and more fun.  Our commitment to building a better future is ingrained in everything we do – from the responsible manufacturing of our semiconductors, to caring for our employees, to giving back inside our communities.  This is just the beginning of our story.  Learn more at www.ti.com.

SOURCE Texas Instruments