Army of volunteers to work at Opportunity Partners in Plymouth

For area homeowners, weekends in April are often set aside for spring cleaning.  The story is quite the same for Twin Cities nonprofits who need help with landscape clean-up, sorting and pitching, painting, general fix-up and more at their respective facilities.  And Comcast and NBCUniversal are reaching out to lend a helping hand.    

From 8am until noon on Saturday morning, April 26, more than 2,000 Comcast employees, family members and friends will head to dozens of Twin Cities project sites as a part of Comcast Cares Day.  Dozens of those volunteers will take on an ambitious community project at Opportunity Partners - Asplin Center, located at 10000 51st Avenue N. in Plymouth.  Opportunity Partners supports people who have developmental disabilities and other special needs in their effort to improve their self-sufficiency at work, at home, and in life. Volunteers will paint walls of a production area and gymnasium at Asplin Center.

“We are thrilled that Comcast volunteers are sharing their time with us,” said Armando Camacho, president & CEO of Opportunity Partners.  “Our organization is stronger due to the generous support we receive from businesses like Comcast, and we are very grateful.”

This year marks the company’s 13th annual event, with more than 80,000 volunteers expected at over 700 locations across the country and around the globe.  Rallying around this year’s theme, “Making Change Happen,” Comcast Cares Day is widely recognized as the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort.    

“Our employees look forward to Comcast Cares Day each year because they’re excited to volunteer with local social service organizations whose programs are key to the stability and health of the communities where we live and work,” said Jeff Freyer, Comcast regional vice president – Twin Cities.  “We’ve partnered with a number of these organizations for more than a decade.” 

Budgets continue to be tight for nonprofits.  They are busy serving their clients and welcome extra help with clean-up and the kinds of chores that are difficult to get around to doing.  “We take special care to make sure our projects are well planned and fully staffed with volunteers who are ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work,” added Freyer. 

At thirty separate non-profit sites across the Twin Cities, Comcast employees will landscape, power wash, paint, sort donations, restock warehouses and food shelves, install garage doors, deep-clean kitchens, and more.  

The Comcast Foundation will also provide grants to local community partner organizations on behalf of everyone who volunteers on Comcast Cares Day. The grants will help Comcast’s community partners in the Twin Cities and across the country continue their collective mission of serving the community throughout the year.  To date, the Comcast Foundation has awarded more than $14 million in grants to partner organizations to match the efforts of our volunteers on Comcast Cares Day.  In addition, more than half a million volunteers have contributed over 3 million volunteer hours since Comcast Cares Day started in 2001.

You can follow Comcast Cares Day at www.comcastvoices.com, via Twitter at #CCDay, as well as on Facebook and Flickr.

About Comcast Corporation:  Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq:  CMCSA, CMCSK) (www.comcast.com) is one of the nation’s leading providers of entertainment, information and communications products and services.  Comcast is principally involved in the operation of cable systems through Comcast Cable and in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, news, sports and other content for global audiences through NBCUniversal.  Comcast Cable is one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed Internet and phone providers to residential and business customers.  Comcast is the majority owner and manager of NBCUniversal, which owns and operates entertainment and news cable networks, the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks, local television station groups, television production operations, a major motion picture company and theme parks.