Hurricane Katrina provided BellSouth Corp. with one more example of how community service is in its DNA. Beyond the business of restoring phone service, the company has set up more than 20 phone banks in coastal areas to provide free local and long-distance calls for residents. It's waiving charges for some voice mail and call forwarding and is offering free relocation services. It also has set up four tent cities for employees whose homes were destroyed and is providing them with food, clothing, and financial support.

Not that BellSouth needed another example. Its community involvement dates back to 1911 when Alexander Graham Bell and hundreds of telephone company workers formed the Telephone Pioneers of America, a group of volunteers devoted to making their communities better places to live and work. Today, that spirit lives on.

"People want to work for a company that stands for something," Dramis says.

More than 100,000 volunteers from BellSouth donate about 4 million hours every year. In all, BellSouth and its employees last year spent and volunteered the equivalent of $83 million in community service, demonstrating that providing help in the neighborhoods and cities where its employees live and work is one of the company's major values. "We share in the ups and downs of the communities we live in," CIO Fran Dramis says. "Our work doesn't stop at the buildings where we work."

Many of BellSouth's community-service initiatives are focused on education and technology. The BellSouth Foundation is a cornerstone of this effort, which includes a virtual-classroom initiative that will start in full force in November. Virtual schools supplement regular classroom instruction with online classes that students can take at home or during off-hours. The company has donated money to supplemental online schools in several Southern states and is prepared to go deeper. "We want to be sure that lower-income and less-advantaged students have a chance to take these courses," says Mary Boehm, president of the BellSouth Foundation.

BellSouth has done a lot of work to involve technology in education reform. One of the most successful efforts was Project Dreamland, in which it challenged teachers to decrease their use of paper. Thirteen teams of educators used Blackboard Inc.'s online bulletin-board software for four months to find ways to reduce paper and rely more on technology in schools.

	BellSouth has been a supporter of Habitat for Humanity since its inception 29 years ago.

One participating district, Graves County Schools in southwestern Kentucky, held a voluntary paperless day. More than 100 teachers and 4,300 students participated, says Eddy Wright, instructional technology coordinator at Graves County. Teachers relied on E-mail, interactive lessons, and computers. "We went in to save paper, but it caused these teachers to think differently about how they were going to develop their lessons," Wright says.

Although education is the current focus, it isn't the only one. The company has worked closely with Habitat for Humanity since its founding in 1976 and has built 300 Habitat houses, including at least two technology-enabled smart homes.

BellSouth rounds out its community service with general volunteer hours, donations, corporate giving, support to local hospitals and nonprofits, computers for low-income seniors, and walk-a-thons.

These efforts let employees make contributions to their communities and help them feel better about themselves and their company. Says Dramis, "At the end of the day, people want to work for a company that stands for something."

Illustration By Paul Watson

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