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(soft music)

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<v Narrator>Henry County's in the southern part</v>

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of Virginia, southern central part of Virginia,

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the Piedmont region, very rural, very traditional.

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<v ->Over the last 15 years Martinsville's lost</v>

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around 20,000 jobs, it has been very challenging,

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on our city and its citizens,

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and on our young people as well.

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<v ->We've led that state in unemployment,</v>

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so we have a high rate of poverty,

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the city of Martinsville

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ranked third in child poverty from zero to 17.

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<v Mark>The Boys and Girls Club provides invaluable support</v>

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to the young people who are involved with that program.

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<v ->I went into the Boys and Girls Club</v>

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when I went into foster care.

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I was placed in one foster home,

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and that foster home got shut down,

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and then they placed me with Will, my adopted dad now,

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and he didn't have anywhere for me to go after school.

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<v ->The center that he was with</v>

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was the Boys and Girls Club Teen Center,

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and it was a converted daycare.

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It had Care Bears painted on the walls,

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rainbows, everything for little children in a nursery.

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My idea that I took to Comcast was,

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give me 500 bucks, let me and my son go in there,

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and paint the walls.

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<v Laurie>We were gonna come in paint,</v>

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spruce the place up and make it more teen friendly.

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<v ->I'm here with the supplies,</v>

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with my fellow Comcast employees,

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and we're seeing walls being painted,

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and I look around, and it's kids.

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All these kids have paint brushes painting.

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And I look around and more kids are showing up,

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and more families are showing up.

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<v ->After the first Comcast Cares Day,</v>

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it just blew up, so it became let's spruce up our school,

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let's pick up the trash in the community,

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let's come together and make a statement.

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<v ->We're a shop of only of about 20 employees.</v>

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At first when we started off with about 130, 150 people,

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we ballooned up into the 200s, the 300s,

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our last Comcast Cares Day, we had 733 people.

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We wound up being

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the fourth largest Comcast Cares Day site in the nation.

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<v ->I think Comcast really cares, I think that they really are</v>

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in it to build stronger communities.

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<v Laurie>You walk through the doors,</v>

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great futures start here,

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and the reason they do is because organizations

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like Comcast help make change happen.

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<v ->It started off with just two people,</v>

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me and my son, to me and the employees,

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me and the center, and then me and the community.

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It just exploded, it was a massive snowball effect.

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That still to this day humbles me,

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and stirs up my emotions.

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(inspiring music)