Citizen Verizon to the rescue.

On today’s edition of Up To Speed, Diana shared the following updates, starting with this week’s highlights:

Up To Speed news rundown

• Monday: We celebrated a big milestone for Jimmy who’s been with the company for 50 years, and Andy reminded us that the VZPulse survey just kicked off.
• Tuesday: Andy visited a rockstar retail team in Inglewood, California, to see their dedication and hard work in action.
• Thursday: We learned how our Business Markets team is helping MetroHealth Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, keep their community safe and healthy by providing over a dozen routers to vaccination sites across the community.

Tennessee storms

We are now offering unlimited talk, text and data relief to those hardest hit by the flooding in Tennessee. The relief runs through September 1, 2021. Check if you’re eligible.

Our response to Afghanistan

This week, we began offering unlimited calling to Afghanistan to our consumer and business wireless customers, as well as customers with residential landlines. This relief runs through September 6, 2021.

Storm and earthquake update

As a reminder, we are waiving charges for calls from residential and business wireless and landline customers to Haiti. This offer ends August 31, 2021. Check out how you can help the people of Haiti by texting to donate to Save the Children, UNICEF and World Central Kitchen.

And thank you to our network teams that kept everyone connected as Tropical Storm Henri came ashore in New England last weekend.

We are also monitoring Tropical Storm Ida which is forecast to possibly hit Louisiana this Sunday as a Category 3. Our network and Verizon Response teams are preparing for whatever comes our way. For all of the latest updates on our emergency response, check out the Emergency Resource Center.

2021 Brand Experience Award

Verizon was selected as a 2021 Brand Experience Award winner by RetailX and Retail Touchpoints, in the category of Most Effective Pivot Strategy. Matt Carr, North East Consumer Vice President, and David Oliveira, New York City Consumer Sales Director, received the award Tuesday night on our behalf. Congratulations to us!

Are you a flip or fold?

Good news: The new Samsung devices, including the new Galaxy Z Fold3 5G and Galaxy Z Flip3 5G, are now available. Check out what George has to say about the new devices and go shopping!

Women in Business

Earlier this week, Verizon Business hosted a conversation around Diversity in the Workplace as part of its Women in Business series, live on LinkedIn. Wendy Taccetta, leader for Nationwide Small Business and Channel Chief, moderated a discussion with Janelle Panebianco, Senior Director, External Communications, Papa Johns, and author, activist, actress and producer, Sheetal Sheth.

Nantucket storm response

Recently, a storm knocked out a system that provides phone service to parts of the island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts. In partnership with our Verizon Business & Wireline Network Operations teams, the race was on to locate a spare electronics card to restore service. The last ferry to Nantucket was at 5:30 PM, and the team fought Boston rush hour traffic to meet the Hyannis ferry after multiple handoffs between teammates.

The best part was that when our business customer picked up their phone the next morning, they had our dial-tone and were onto their day. A job well done to Richard Buckel, William Wilson, Michael Berard, Michael Fountaine and Paul McManus who all played their parts on the ground to make it happen.

Verizon Innovative Learning HQ Portal

Earlier this week, we launched the Verizon Innovative Learning HQ portal, a free K-12 online learning portal for students, teachers and anyone ready to learn. We talked to Alex Servello from our Corporate Social Responsibility team about the exciting features and why these resources are so important.

League of Legends Championship

Are you a fan of the wildly popular League of Legends game? Make sure you check out the League Championship Series Finals, or LCS, this Saturday and Sunday where the number one professional North American League of Legends team will be crowned.

Verizon is the Official 5G Wireless and Network Services partner of the LCS. Right now, we’ve got our Sixth Champion social campaign: Use the hashtag #SixthChampion, and your tweets may be featured during this weekends’ competition. You also have the chance to win an exclusive LCS prize pack when you email us at live@verizon.com.

Make sure to support Verizon-sponsored Team Liquid that is vying for the top spot this weekend. Tune in to the LCS Twitch, YouTube, or LoLesports.com beginning at 4 PM Eastern this Saturday and Sunday to join us in cheering them on to bring home a #TLWIN.

March on Washington

Saturday August 28, will be this year’s March on Washington, with the theme "March On for Voting Rights.” It’s the 58th anniversary of the historic event where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Check out all the activities you can do to celebrate the day in our volunteer portal.

Don’t forget the VZPulse survey

The 3Q VZPulse survey takes less than two minutes to complete, so be sure to share your feedback so we can make Verizon an even better place to work. The survey closes on Monday, August 30, 2021.

Saving the turtles

What’s a Friday without some feel-good news to share? Recently, Courtney Barnard, our small government teammate in Florida, attended the release of some sea turtles that had been found suffering from cold shock. The Florida aquarium has been a Verizon partner for more than 10 years now and they were able to rehab the turtles and outfit them with tracking devices funded by a Verizon grant, as part of our Citizen Verizon climate protection pillar. These devices are critical to saving endangered turtles as they help us understand the migratory patterns of the turtles. Now, the turtles are headed back to sea.

If you have any questions, email them to live@verizon.com.

Click here for a transcript of the webcast.

Get the latest information on our Coronavirus Resource Page (Inside Verizon, The Street).

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