Volunteers Support The Salvation Army on Comcast Cares Day

On Saturday, April 25, dozens of volunteers serving on “Comcast Cares Day” painted a homeless shelter, started a garden, and cleaned up the yards of senior citizens on behalf of the Twin Cities Salvation Army.

Now in its eighth year, Comcast Cares Day is a nationwide effort helping nonprofits upgrade their facilities and serve others through the help of 50,000 company volunteers. In the Twin Cities, more than 1,400 volunteers served at 50 nonprofit sites.

Thirty of the volunteers painted an entire floor of the The Salvation Army Harbor Light Shelter in downtown Minneapolis. “Comcast volunteers have helped Harbor Light to continue serving people in surroundings everyone can be proud of,” said Major Darryl Leedom, Commander of the Twin Cities Salvation Army.

Fifteen of the volunteers descended on the Central Ave. Salvation Army in Northeast Minneapolis. Some helped create a 2,300-square-foot, on-site garden (pictured) that will be used to teach low-income families how to grow their own food. Others did yard work at nearby homes occupied by seniors.

One of the seniors, Diane Agnew, and her husband, had been spending every weekend for the past two months helping Diane’s elderly mother move into an apartment in Alexandria. This left no time for the couple to clean their yard or repair the fence surrounding it. 

“We drove up to our house on Sunday morning, tired and sore, and noticed the fence had been repaired and straightened,” Diane said. “When I got out of the car and looked around, I started to cry.  Not only was our fence (repaired), but all the leaves in the yard were raked; a birdhouse hanging off the fence was reattached; all my plants were uncovered; the air-conditioner was uncovered; our patio furniture was uncovered and set up…even our rain gutters were cleaned out. We were so happy.”

“My husband is 70 years old with two artificial knees, and I have arthritis,” she continued. “We are thinking of selling our home because we can't do the outside work any longer. So you can see what a blessing this was for us. God bless everyone involved!”

“Comcast is proud to be an active member of the Twin Cities community, and Comcast Cares Day is our commitment to improving the quality of life in communities we serve,” said Mary Beth Schubert, Comcast’s vice president of corporate communications. “There is nothing more rewarding than giving back, and I’m grateful to the hundreds of Comcast volunteers who donated their time to help make such a big difference.”