“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” ― Pablo Picasso
June 20th was a beautiful day in Trenton, New Jersey—perfect for a round of golf and, more importantly, an afternoon with friends coming together for an extremely special cause very close to all of our hearts.
DZS was honored and delighted to be a signature sponsor of the Arman Roy Foundation’s 2nd Annual “Hope-in-One” Golf Tournament. When we first heard Arman’s story, we were incredibly inspired and wanted to do our part in helping the foundation with its mission.
When Arman was 12-years-old, he learned that more than 70% of kids just like him, living in Detroit, didn’t have Internet access and community organizations showed up to share gigabit connections with homes by way of rooftop antennas. Arman announced to his family that this was exactly what he wanted to do when he grew up—to one day bring critical technological resources and skills to at-risk kids in the United States.
Tragically, Arman’s life was cut short at just 15, leaving behind a heartbroken family that wanted so much to honor their son and somehow make his earthly dreams of helping other kids by way of technology come true. In that spirit, the Arman Roy Foundation was born.
We were able to meet and spend time with Arman’s wonderful parents, Manisha and Roy, and we feel we have made lifelong friends in them and will be following the Arman Roy Foundation and continuing to lend our support for many years to come.
The tournament helped raise funds to establish technology learning pods at the VOA-GNY Regent Family Residence and the Judith C. White Liberty House Domestic Violence Shelter, which serves over 180 school-aged children and their families, and will ensure these children have access to tech learning pods. Our fantastic playing partner Rayna Sukha of Verizon joined us on the course, and together with Christopher Sawicki and my son Alec, he was instrumental in winning the golf tournament for team DZS. We were happy to be among donors including Kubhera, Bastarrika Soto, Dutchess Pulmonary Associates and The Seiler Group. All very different companies with one common goal—to keep Arman’s bright light burning.
Even though I was sadly never able to meet Arman, I certainly feel he was a kindred spirit. Arman’s youthful optimism and desire to help other people resonates with what we do each day at DZS—always looking for new, innovative ways to help unserved and underserved communities access broadband with our hyperfast broadband connectivity and WiFi experience management solutions and services. We are helping service providers across the globe to transform into Experience Providers and deliver the ultimate subscriber experience.
There are plenty of ways to become involved with the foundation—visit https://www.armanroy.org/get-involved for more information.
We look forward to next year’s event (automatic invite to defend the title) and encourage others who are inspired by Arman’s story to participate as well.