From April through mid-May, more than 11,000 local Comcast NBCUniversal employees and their families, friends and community partners “made change happen” as they volunteered at more than 200 project sites across New Jersey, the City of Philadelphia and the surrounding suburbs and northern Delaware, as part of the 18th annual Comcast Cares Day. Activities included the beautification of schools, sorting and serving food, landscaping community centers and parks, hosting local blood drives and more.
We’re proud of the positive difference our volunteers make on Comcast Cares Day and every day of the year as they give back to the neighborhoods where our employees and customers live and work. We always look forward to strengthening these communities alongside our great local partners. Here’s a look at some of the impact our volunteers made this year in the Freedom Region!
In the City of Philadelphia alone we hosted approximately 4,000 volunteers at more than 100 projects, such as:
- Beautifying 17 schools including 13 School District of Philadelphia schools, such as William McKinley Elementary School, where volunteers – in partnership with City Year Philly – painted mini murals and inspirational quotes, among other tasks.
- Bonus: Earning Eagle Scout status was the inspiration behind a special project at Robert Morris Elementary School, led by a New Jersey high school junior, that had volunteers building mobile planter boxes for students to grow their own produce.
- Joining forces with Jefferson University and Easterseals of Southeast PA, Comcast engineers worked together to adapt toys and vehicles for children with disabilities.
- Preparing gardens for planting, growing and community engagement with Food Moxie; plus, an outdoor kitchen and classroom was built with support from Discovery, Inc., and help from HGTV’s the Boise Boys.
- Revitalizing the century-old Water Tower Recreation Center for a second annual spruce up.
In the surrounding five county Suburbs, we hosted around 4,000 volunteers at 50 projects, such as:
- Teaming up with the Girl Scouts of Eastern PA to clean up Camp Shelly Ridge before the summer camp season.
- Improving the grounds at Variety Club, the Children’s Charity of the Delaware Valley, to become more universally accessible.
- Organizing and sorting clothing for those in need with Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Greater Philadelphia.
- Beautifying Bucks County through multiple Cares Day projects, which had volunteers painting at Lance Corporal Harry J. Simmons Memorial Park, gardening at the Cancer Support Community Center and providing trail maintenance at Lower Makefield Nature Trail, to name a few.
In New Jersey, we hosted more than 3,000 volunteers at 50 projects, such as:
- Swab the deck! Volunteers returned to Battleship NJ, a historic landmark, to perform a number of spring spruce up tasks including cleaning the ship, painting and helping with trash removal.
- Building a simulated living space for special needs students at Irvington High School, as well as an entire campus clean-up, was a joint project among employee-run nonprofit Meet The Need, Comcast’s Black Employee Network and Hispanic-focused employee resource group (Unidos).
- Preparing a community garden for planting were among the projects completed at employee-run nonprofit Impact Harvest, a South Jersey farm that benefits families in need.
- Creating Essential Care and Hygiene Kits for community members in need with CommUNITY SJP, where Congressman Andy Kim pitched in.
- Continuing our work with the Food Bank of South Jersey, volunteers sorted pallets of food, planted flowers and cleaned the warehouse, among other tasks.
Comcast has been committed to serving local communities since its founding more than 50 years ago. For more information on Comcast’s volunteer and community investment initiatives, click here.
To see our volunteers in-action, check out the gallery below.
