Make Change Happen: Thousands of Western Washington & Spokane Comcasters will Volunteer at 13 Locations for Comcast Cares Day 2013

LYNNWOOD, Wash., April 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- On Saturday, April 27, more than 2,000 local Comcast employees and their families and friends will "make change happen" as they volunteer to improve 13 locations throughout Western Washington and Spokane as part of Comcast's 12^th Comcast Cares Day.

Among the locations: two centers for at-risk youth, a camp for children with disabilities, a wildlife rescue center, a food bank, three parks and a neighborhood in Everett.

Comcast Cares Day is Comcast and NBCUniversal's signature day of service and the nation's largest single-day corporate volunteer effort. This year, Comcast expects more than 70,000 Comcast volunteers to participate in over 600 projects across the country. Comcast also expects to achieve another important milestone of 3 million volunteer hours and half a million volunteers since Comcast Cares Day started in 2001. 

"We're honored to partner with so many wonderful organizations to work together to improve our community during our 12^th Comcast Cares Day," said Len Rozek, regional senior vice president for Comcast in Washington. "The hard work of the more than 2,000 volunteers who will be donating their time to help make such a big difference in the lives of others is inspiring. We are thankful to all of our participants who help to make Comcast Cares Day such a success."

Here is a list of the Comcast Cares Day projects in Western Washington and Spokane. Links to the organizations and videos about several of them are available at http://wacomcast.com/2013/04/15/comcastcaresday-washington-2013/ :

Aberdeen: Miller Junior High School. Volunteers will paint the new STEM (Science, Technology, Electronics, Math) Lab and work on the outside grounds.

Arlington: Sarvey Wildlife Care Center, Arlington. Employees from Comcast's Everett field office will team up to perform spring cleaning, landscape, paint and do a general cleanup to prepare for the busy spring and summer seasons.

Bellingham: Lions Camp Horizon. Comcast volunteers will improve wheelchair accessibility and perform a general spring cleanup to get this summer camp for youth and adults with disabilities ready for summer. 

Everett: Everett's Delta Neighborhood. This is going to be big, and it's thanks to large teams from Comcast's Everett and Lynnwood call centers and corporate offices. Three different projects will happen in the Delta Neighborhood including the construction of a "Friendship Garden," cleaning, painting and raised bed construction at the Grandview Community Center and cleanup of ballfields, dugouts and painting at a local Boys & Girls Club.

Gig Harbor: Kenneth Leo Marvin Veterans Memorial Park Comcast's Bremerton-based employees will plant, spread bark, weed and clean large flower beds and wooded areas.

Kent: Northwest Harvest.  Auburn-based employees will box food for deliveries, perform gardening, cleaning, and doing office work. 

Olympia: Rebuilding Together of Thurston County. This group fixes up homes so people can continue to live in them. Comcast Employees will fix up a home for a person with disabilities. Comcast volunteers will rebuild sections of the fence, add a gate, replace steps, clean the yard, replace carpet, replace and paint siding on garage and more.

Redmond: Eastside Audubon Society at the Audubon BirdLoop at Marymoor Park. Like they did last year, Comcast volunteers will remove invasive plants such as blackberry bushes, and mulch and plant.

Seattle: Aki Kurose Middle School. Volunteers will paint (including updating the murals on the walls) and build some things like benches so the youth can take better advantage of a park by their school.

Seattle: Labateyah Youth Home Comcast employees will help  the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation with a variety of projects. At this  residence for homeless youth in Seattle's Crown Hill neighborhood, volunteers will paint rooms, hallways, landscape and install the equipment and furnishings for their tech center, which Comcast donated.  

Spokane: Excelsior Youth Center. Here Comcast has several projects that directly benefit the youth and families Excelsior serves.  Among other things, Comcast employees will be landscaping the front entrance, building several picnic tables, painting the interior and exterior of the school, building stairs, resurfacing a half pipe, and digging a trench to enable a lighting system for the front entrance. The center provides emotional and behavioral treatment to community youth through both inpatient and outpatient services, including an on-site school. 

Tacoma: Hope Sparks. Employees from Comcast's Fife call center will be landscaping, painting and helping with organization of the food and clothing bank for this agency that assists people with mental health counseling, early education and support for families in crisis in Pierce County.

Tacoma: McKinley Park. Comcast volunteers will work with MetroParks Tacoma to remove invasive plant species, mulch, plant. and more.

The Comcast Foundation will also provide grants to local community partner organizations across the country on behalf of each employee and family member who volunteers on Comcast Cares Day. The grants will help Comcast's community partners continue their mission of serving the community throughout the year. To date Comcast has committed more than $12 million in grants to organizations nationwide.

Comcast has been committed to serving local communities since its founding 50 years ago. For more information on Comcast's volunteer and community investment initiatives, visit www.comcast.com/community. A steady stream of updates and pictures is expected through Twitter with the hashtag #CCDay.

About Comcast Corporation
Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) is a global media and technology company with two primary businesses, Comcast Cable and NBCUniversal.  Comcast Cable is the nation's largest video, high-speed Internet and phone provider to residential customers under the XFINITY brand and also provides these services to businesses.  NBCUniversal operates 30 news and entertainment cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, television production operations, television station groups, Universal Pictures and Universal Parks and Resorts.  Visit www.comcastcorporation.com for more information.Comcast has 3,500 employees in Washington. For more information about their activities, see www.wacomcast.com

About the Comcast Foundation
The Comcast Foundation was founded by Comcast Corporation in June 1999 to provide charitable support to qualified non-profit organizations. The Foundation primarily invests in programs intended to have a positive, sustainable impact on their communities. The Foundation has three community investment priorities—promoting service, expanding digital literacy, and building tomorrow's leaders. Since its inception, the Comcast Foundation has donated more than $123 million to organizations in the communities nationwide that Comcast serves. More information about the Foundation and its programs is available at www.comcast.com/community.

Walter Neary
Cell: 253-405-7706
Twitter: @comcastwa

Email [email protected]

SOURCE Comcast