In less than two weeks, we will celebrate our 12th annual Comcast Cares Day, the largest single-day corporate volunteer effort in the nation. Equipped with paint brushes, hand shovels, and gardening gloves, I will join thousands of our employees, along with their families and friends, on Saturday, April 27th to make change happen in hundreds of communities across our country. 

Comcast Cares Day has been one of my favorite traditions since I joined Comcast eight years ago. But I’m especially excited about this year for three reasons. 

First, thanks to our NBCUniversal colleagues, Comcast Cares Day is going global for the first time, with project sites in England, France, Germany, and Australia. Second, we are on track to surpass three million hours of volunteer service since the first Comcast Cares Day was held in 2001. Third, with more than 70,000 participants anticipated this year, we expect to surpass more than half a million volunteers in Comcast Cares Day history. 

As I travel the country this time of year talking about our community investment efforts, I am routinely asked how we choose the more than 700 project sites we will work on this Comcast Cares Day. The answer – which often surprises people – is that many of our projects are suggested by our employees. Serving as our eyes and ears in the communities we serve, they help us identify where we can make a difference. 

One of those employees is Lisa Walker, who works on our Customer Care and Operations team in Atlanta, Ga. Long a supporter of a nearby women’s safe house for domestic violence victims, Lisa last year coordinated a Comcast Cares Day project to renovate the center. More than two dozen volunteers painted walls in vibrant colors and accessorized rooms with pictures, pillows, and lamps. The environment became more welcoming and more like home for the women and families staying there. 

Another employee whose personal commitment made a difference is Will Koger, a Comcast technician from Martinsville, Va., a financially-struggling rural town. Four years ago, Will asked Comcast for $500 to spruce up his son’s Boys & Girls Club, run out of an old day care center with teddy bears still painted on its walls. Thanks to Will’s efforts and energy, the Boys & Girls Club last year was the fourth largest Comcast Cares Day project in the country, drawing more than 700 volunteers to help improve it. 

The shared passion and enthusiasm of employees like Lisa and Will are truly what makes Comcast Cares Day so successful. With so many others like them, I know we’ll have more stories to tell as Comcast Cares Day continues to evolve. Thank you for your support as we join together to make change happen again April 27th, in our backyards and around the globe.