A small Cisco Systems marketing team opened their multi-day onsite meeting in Milpitas, California with a charity bike build. Eleven participants built four bikes and donated them to Joshua’s Gift, a nonprofit supporting families with children diagnosed with autism. The organization is run by Mizpah Brown-Rich — a Cisco employee who works on the same campus. A family joined the event virtually to share that one of the bikes was going to their six-year-old.
Cisco Systems is a global technology leader in networking, cybersecurity, and collaboration. The company operates major campuses across the San Francisco Bay Area, including in Milpitas, California, where this event took place.
Eleven Cisco Teammates Make Donation for a Colleague’s Autism Nonprofit With Charity Bike Build in Milpitas, California
Small groups have a different energy in the Build-A-Bike® format. With 11 people, there is nowhere to disappear. Everyone contributes, everyone competes, and the results belong to the whole team more than in larger events.
The charity connection made this one different from the start. Mizpah Brown-Rich is a Cisco employee who founded Joshua’s Gift, a nonprofit that works with families raising neurodivergent children with autism. When the team chose to donate the bikes to Joshua’s Gift, they were giving to an organization that one of their own built — a level of connection that matters.
Four bikes came together over the afternoon. When the event finished, a family joined virtually to share what it meant to have their six-year-old receive one of those bikes. That moment landed in a room full of colleagues who had just built it together.
Starting a multi-day meeting with that kind of afternoon is a good call. Thank you to Cisco Systems for bringing this into their onsite schedule.
Planning a multi-day meeting or team offsite in the San Jose or Milpitas area? A charity bike build gives your group a powerful way to start working together, and a story worth carrying into the rest of the week.