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Community

Philanthropy & Volunteerism

ITT is leveraging our corporate philanthropic resources to address a global issue — water scarcity — while our businesses and employees continue to help address other local needs through donations, sponsorships and volunteer activities. Here are just some examples of how we gave back to our communities at a grassroots level in 2007:

Caring ITT Teams

  • ITT employees in China handed out more than 15,000 re-usable, recyclable shopping bags at supermarkets in five cities to reduce the waste created by millions of discarded plastic bags. The activity was held on World Water Day — March 22, 2008 — as a way to remind shoppers that the "white pollution" from plastic bags badly degrades soil and underground water supplies. If every shopper uses their ITT bag just 20 times, it will eliminate the need for 1.2 million plastic bags.
  • ITT employees at our Advanced Engineering & Sciences business throughout the United States pledged more than $220,000 in 2007 to their company-organized non-profit corporation. Grants from this organization supported the disabled, pediatric cancer patients, corporate mentorship programs, health clinics and programs, literacy programs, youth centers, organ transplant recipients, abuse shelters and veterans' assistance programs. Since 1991, employees have distributed almost $1.8 million to their communities through this program.
  • ITT employees in Nogales, Mexico provided local schools with furniture and hands-on construction, building maintenance and clean-up efforts. They also donated funds to help build a media classroom at one of the local schools to enable students to learn with computers, and additional funds to rehabilitate the cafeteria at a local drug rehabilitation center.
  • Our ITT pump business in the Philippines donated pump systems to two emergency relocation sites and three public schools in Daraga, Albay after a super-typhoon slammed into this region in March 2007. Employees volunteered to dig wells, pour concrete and install the pump systems, which are now delivering clean water to thousands of people.
  • Our California-based businesses opened their doors so people fleeing the San Diego, California wildfires could store their treasured possessions.
  • ITT employees in Mexico donated more than 42 tons of food, water and blankets — and our Mexico-based businesses donated water treatment systems — to help flood victims in Tabasco.
  • ITT Defense employees throughout the world made numerous donations to U.S. troops serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of the world. Their care packages have included everything from toothbrushes to ping-pong tables.
  • In honor of a colleague who passed away in 2007, ITT Water and Wastewater employees in Italy donated $15,000 to establish a scholarship for human resources development studies at the University of Modena. ITT matched the donation.
  • Our Residential and Commercial Water business in Seneca Falls, New York sponsored the 2007 Canon Envirothon, which brought together hundreds of high school students from around the U.S. for a week long environmental education competition. ITT employees also served as volunteer coordinators for this event.
  • A team of young students and their ITT parents won the 2007 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Lego League Indiana state competition. ITT sponsored the robot-building competition, which was focused on the issues of energy consumption and conservation.
  • Our Interconnect Solutions business in Shenzhen, China donated funds to build a water well to the region of Shanbei, which has suffered from a chronic water shortage for hundreds of years.
  • The ITT Space Systems business partnered with public City School #8 in Rochester, New York to develop a tutoring and mentoring program for fifth and sixth grade students. As part of the program, ITT employees volunteered to help students with their homework and provide guidance in areas such as decision-making and anger management.
  • ITT employees from our Night Vision business in Roanoke, Virginia donated school supplies to grade school children in war-torn Kosovo.
  • A dozen ITT employees and interns in Virginia traveled to Washington, D.C. to help build a Habitat for Humanity home for a single mother and her daughter.
  • Managers and employees from our Shenzhen, China plant worked together to rush emergency money, clothes and school supplies to displaced survivors of the devastating floods in Shaoguan, Guangdong province.
  • To celebrate Earth Day 2008, our Space Systems Division in Rochester, New York delivered more than four tons of aging computer monitors and electronics equipment to a local recycling center.

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Caring ITT Individuals

In addition to the many company-sponsored initiatives, ITT is home to a great number of individuals who are giving of their time and resources to make the world a better place. Here are a few examples:

  • Audrey Iwanicki of our Residential & Commercial Water business in Seneca Falls, New York built a towering sculpture from scrap metal pump parts gathered at the ITT pump plant and donated it to Seneca Falls sculpture trail.
  • Iris Wang of our Industrial Pump business provided comfort and encouragement to patients in major hospitals and hospices in Singapore.
  • Shankar Iyer, an engineer for ITT's Defense business, volunteered to serve as an executive trustee for the Sankara Nethralya Ophthalmic Mission Trust, which provides world-class ophthalmic care to vision-impaired patients in India, without any regard to their ability to pay.
  • Steve Shoda of our Communications Systems business in Indiana began coaching a team of wheelchair soccer players who can't use their legs because of spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy and other neurological conditions.
  • Bob Blakely of our Advanced Engineering & Sciences business in Virginia opened up his farm for the 10th year in a row to host a "country fair" for children with Down Syndrome. Four hundred children and family members attended the 2007 event.
  • Darla Blazey and Teresa Mayer from our Space Systems business in Rochester, New York volunteered to help two local non-profit organizations work to empower gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people — and to eradicate homophobia.
Recognizing Two Humanitarian Heroes

Each year, ITT presents its highest company honor, the Harold S. Geneen Award, to employees whose actions have improved the quality of life for people in their communities. In 2007, two employees earned this outstanding honor.

Steve Tilders was recognized for bringing hope and humanitarian aid to villagers in one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. From his home base in Massachusetts, he regularly travels to remote, destitute areas in Haiti to help build churches and libraries, conduct youth programs, provide family counseling and organize clothing donations.

Betty West is lending a helping hand to people in her community of Houston, Texas in many different ways. She is a cancer survivor who counsels frightened patients. She is a volunteer for Special Olympic events. She is a clown spreading cheer in hospitals and nursing homes. And, through her three-decade-long membership on the American Business Women's Association, she is helping battered women regain their self-esteem, confidence — and lives.

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