2019-Mar-04

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One Team, One Cisco Family

BY DEAN VIALL · SENIOR MARKETING MANAGER · UNITED STATES

Dean embraces his daughter Hannah during a family vacation in New York City in 2017.

For 18 years, Cisco has been family to me. I am continually amazed by how they have supported me during the last year — an especially difficult time for me and my family.

Not only have they stood by me, cared for me, comforted me, and cried with me but the generosity and support from Cisco — and specifically the America’s Marketing and Communications team — has kept me moving forward.

My daughter Hannah passed away as the result of a car accident on February 24, 2018, just one month shy of her 16th birthday.

On that day, our lives changed forever and would never be the same.

Here is what I have learned from this tragedy and how I now choose to live my life today.

Hannah had an abundance of love and compassion — she was a friend to everyone.

Who Was Hannah?

Hannah had a kind, generous, and loving spirit — her smile would light up any room. She had a gift for making people feel loved, accepted, and good about themselves.

She had a way of reaching out to many people. It didn’t matter if she had known someone forever or just met them, she would make sure everyone around her felt welcome. If you came in her path, you were her friend.

Hannah showed kindness to everyone and she loved to give hugs to show you she cared. The best way to honor Hannah’s legacy is to challenge everyone to perform kind acts for those around you.

Pass along a hug or smile to someone you barely know or someone you see struggling and make them feel accepted and loved.

So, in her spirit and memory, we created the slogan “Hug a Day”.

A hug is an amazing thing. It’s just the perfect way to show the love we’re feeling but can’t find the words to say.

Dean and his team get ready to release butterflies to honor Hannah.

Dean releases butterflies to symbolize the beauty of Hannah’s spirit.

The Cisco Family — “One Team, One Family”

Have you ever released a butterfly? At a recent team offsite, the entire team wore #LiveLikeHannah shirts, and we released butterflies to honor Hannah.

You may ask, why release butterflies? While the time a butterfly spends on Earth is short, its impact is significant, and its existence is often referenced as a miracle. The butterfly symbolizes the beauty of Hannah’s spirit.

We held hands, closed our eyes, said a prayer, and let our hearts fill with hope. We believe Hannah’s legacy can challenge everyone to live a life of kindness.

Foundation: “L.I.V.E. Like Hannah Foundation”

We established the L.I.V.E. like Hannah Foundation not only to honor Hannah but to challenge others to live more earnestly and selflessly as she did.

Our foundation, “L.I.V.E like Hannah”, stands for Loving, Including and Valuing Everyone, just like Hannah did. In creating the foundation, our family honored her by focusing on the organizations she was involved in during her life while carrying on her ability to make people feel special.

We chose to support the YMCA of the Triangle (Kerr Family YMCA), Camp Don Lee, and scholarships for students at both Heritage High School, where she attended, and Wake Forest High School, where she had many friends.

Dean, his wife Erika and daughters Haley and Kennedy all share Hannah’s love for life.

My Life Moving Forward

I have been blessed in life with three beautiful girls, though Hannah is our angel in heaven.

My girls mean the world to me. Each one is different, but they all show constant care, love, and kindness. They understand that life is too short to take for granted, to stress, worry, or be unhappy.

What I ask of you is simply the following:

Hug your kids.
Hug your spouse.
Hug your parents and grandparents.
Say “I LOVE YOU.”

“I love you.” Those were my last words to Hannah. This gives me strength each day, knowing we said that to each other.

One of Hannah’s last journal entries ended with “Life is a joy.”

Think about how you can Live Like Hannah. Live your life to the fullest. Dream big and worry less. Be kind to others and make the world a better place.

We are one family. We are Cisco.

#HugaDay