NBC Bay Area and Telemundo 48 employees rolled up their sleeves Saturday for the 16th annual Comcast Cares Day.
From boxing donated food to mentoring youth, our employees volunteer year-round to make a difference in our shared communities, and Comcast Cares Day is our yearly celebration of this commitment to volunteerism.
"It was amazing just to see how many people showed up and they just descended on the projects," Stephanie Vose of Comcast said of what is now the largest single-day corporate effort in the United States.
In San Francisco on Saturday, familiar faces, including anchors Raj Mathai and Janelle Wang, were spotted at Sutro Elementary School at 235 12th Avenue. The school got some TLC in the form of a mural, an expanded learning garden, planters with fresh bark, and repainted safety lines around classroom doorways.
Myra Quadros, the principal of Sutro Elementary School, was captivated by the way Comcast employees, along with their friends and families, transformed the campus.
"It's really incredible," she said. "We were adopted through Comcast and this would never happen through the school district."
In San Jose, our team went to Glider Elementary School at 511 Cozy Drive. As part of our partnership with the school, bences were sanded, flowers were planted and a USA map was added to the playground.
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"This is a great event that's helping out the city, that's changing a school, that's helping our youth," artist Dave Young Kim said.
A slew of volunteering opportunities were also available in Oakland, Milpitas, Santa Cruz, Fremont and elsewhere.
"The most important thing we can do is be involved locally and make positive change locally and be strong," said San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener.
Comcast Cares Day has evolved from a modest service effort with 6,100 volunteers at the time of its founding. In 2016, nearly 108,000 volunteers participated, improving more than 930 project sites throughout 540 local communities.
"Kids are going to come back, their school is going to be transformed or a garden is going to be transformed and you don't understand the impact that this has on kids who sometimes wonder -- and families sometimes wonder -- if their country is ignoring them or they've been left behind," said David Cohen, senior executive vice president of Comcast Corporation.
More information can be found online.
