TIers put our company’s commitment to citizenship into action every day in their jobs and in their communities. In our ongoing series “CiTIzenship," we feature TIers around the world making a difference in their communities and creating technology for good.
After watching a friend’s deep grief over the death of her infant son, Si Diep felt he needed to do something. So he completed a triathlon to raise money for cancer research.
“The baby was only a few months old when he was diagnosed with Leukemia,” Si said. “He spent most of his time in the hospital. The cancer was not only killing him, but it also affected his family. I wanted to raise money for cancer research, and putting my body through endurance sports seemed like a good idea.”
Si, an electrical engineer in our Santa Clara, Calif. office, had never competed in endurance sports, so he signed up with The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, a sports-training program that raises money for blood-cancer research. His initial goal was an Olympic-length triathlon, which includes a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run.
He finished that first triathlon in 2013 and raised about $6,000 for Leukemia research.
But he was just getting started. Since his first race, Si has completed a half-length triathlon, run a marathon and participated in a 100-mile bike race to raise money for charities. He served as a Team-in-Training captain to help people just starting to prepare for a race. Now he’s preparing for a full-length Ironman triathlon – a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride and 26.2-mile marathon.
“People donate to these causes year after year, and even though I don’t have to, I want to push myself harder and harder every year to justify that,” he said. “I have to push myself because I made a commitment. I’m doing this for a cause. I cannot let my friends and family down. I have to finish what I started.”
Si’s involvement in worthwhile causes extends beyond endurance sports. With his wife’s encouragement, he has returned to his native Vietnam twice to build homes with Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program. In addition, he serves as a coordinator for the Family Giving Tree that TI sponsors every Christmas in Santa Clara and he promotes TI’s annual United Way campaign with his fellow employees in the Bay Area.
For these efforts, Si was among 12 individual employees and three employee teams recently honored with TI Founders Community Service Awards for outstanding volunteerism and contributions toward building strong communities.
“Training for these races requires a lot of time and energy,” Si said. “However, it’s nothing compared to what a cancer patient goes through during treatment. When I hit a rough stretch during my training, I think of these guys … But community service doesn’t need to involve anything big. Just an hour here or there is enough to help out others.”