Comcast Cares Day is simply the best day of the year for Comcast NBCUniversal. This day has become an annual tradition for tens of thousands of our employees, their friends and families, and our nonprofit partners as we join together to make change happen in our communities and celebrate our company culture of caring year round. As we celebrate our 16th Comcast Cares Day this year, we have more than 100,000 volunteers improving 1,000 project sites at community centers, schools, gardens, parks, beaches, and more throughout the U.S. and in 20 other countries. And by joining for a second year on Comcast Cares Day with two incredible partner organizations, Global Citizen and Red Nose Day, we are providing our volunteers with additional ways to give back and to amplify their efforts to help change the world for the better.

The numbers tell the story of the sheer magnitude of the day, but what they don’t convey are the stories behind those numbers – the people whose lives have been helped through Comcast Cares Day. At my first Comcast Cares Day, I joined a group of employees at the YMCA in Chester, a struggling community outside of Philadelphia. We painted a mural and installed a technology lab for after-school and adult education programs. A few weeks later, I was talking to a group of former AT&T Broadband employees who had just joined the company about that visit. Afterwards, a woman came up to me and shared how important that same YMCA was to her family, as a safe haven in her community when she was growing up. She told me, with tears in her eyes, how proud she was to work for a company that was doing so much to help the community where she had grown up. That has stayed with me over the years, and many of us can share dozens and dozens more stories just like it. 

 

Today, I’m looking forward to doing volunteer work that will lead to more memorable stories, and improved lives. My first stop is in San Francisco, where I’ll join 300 volunteers to improve Sutro Elementary School, a school where more than half of the students are either first- or second- generation Cantonese. We will clean up the inside and outside of the school and also paint a mural with inspiring images in partnership with the APA Heritage Foundation to celebrate the diverse APA community. The completed mural will then be formally unveiled May 1 by San Francisco’s mayor before an audience of more than 600 people.

I’ll also be in Los Angeles, where we will work with two of Comcast NBCUniversal’s national partners, Big Brothers Big Sisters and City Year, to build an environment at North Hollywood High School where students can be even more proud to learn. Our 400 volunteers will paint murals underscoring their school pride, as well as highlighting inspirational college and STEM themes. I’m particularly excited to visit this school because it is our newest partner in a national Big Brothers Big Sisters program through which about 400 employee "bigs" mentor student "littles" on site at Comcast NBCUniversal offices in 17 cities nationwide.

I know I’ll hear even more stories today that will continue to make me proud to work at Comcast NBCUniversal, and even more awed by the lasting impact we are making together.