As we told you a few days ago, we celebrated the start earlier this week of the second year of our Beyond School Walls program. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Snohomish County match children from Woodside Elementary School in Everett to employees at our call center and executive offices in Lynnwood, supported by a grant from the Comcast Foundation.
Below is a longer video about the event than the video we posted earlier this week. What did the kids think? You’ll hear words like “fun” and much more:
Honestly, we would all love to spend more time volunteering, but between work, school events and driving the kids to their various activities there just isn’t enough time. Plus some Comcasters already volunteer in one or more ways.
That’s the beauty of Beyond School Walls. The program takes fourth and fifth graders or “littles” from a local elementary school and matches them with employees or “bigs” from a nearby company. They meet twice a month during the lunch hour at the workplace. In our case, they meet at our regional headquarters and customer service center in Lynnwood.
So what influence can a couple of lunches a month with a “ big” have on a fourth or fifth grader? The answer is, plenty. Kids who participate in the program see improvements in their attendance and grades, according to their teachers and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
They also have a lot of fun. We literally rolled out the red carpet for the 26 “littles” from Woodside Elementary School in Everett today, pretending they were Hollywood stars arriving at the Oscars. Each “Little” received a pair of sunglasses. They were greeted as they came off the bus by Comcast employees who gave them high fives and held up signs with their names on them.
Comcast began the Beyond School Walls program at our corporate headquarters in Philadelphia in 2008. It has grown to become a key component in our national partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America—a partnership in which Comcast has contributed more than $30 million in cash and in kind support.
Update on Dec. 6: Click here to see a longer version of the video about Comcast and Big Brothers and Big Sisters Beyond School Walls
As we told you before, our local offices get excited about United Way drives to raise money for the needy in the communities we serve. The results from the two-week drive are in and are impressive: more than $193,000 donated or pledged to United Ways in Puget Sound and Spokane. All our Washington State offices stepped forward, but a couple of offices raised so much money through special events that they actually had more than 100 percent participation (in effect, people gave twice – through pledges and through donating at special events). Our stars included the Aberdeen office, which is relatively small, but tightly-knit and with a strong heart for Grays Harbor. Other high performers included our call centers in Lynnwood and Fife and our field office in Olympia. One place with a lot of heart is Everett: both our field office and our call center recorded high participation.
Nationwide, Comcasters donated $5.6 million. If you’re passionate about United Way and the people it serves, it’s worth reading this blog post by Savannah Guthrie, Co-Anchor of “Today”
The language of “the beautiful game” is universal, and at no time will this be more evident than at 6 p.m. Wednesday, when the Seattle Sounders FC play for the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup trophy. The match from Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City can only be seen on the Spanish-language GolTV on channel 784. There are no TV broadcasts of this game in English.
Comcast does not play any role in choosing where the game is televised. But we are pleased to be involved in hosting some opportunities to view the game live.
This will be, we assume, the fourth victory in a row: as the club says on its website, “Seattle is one step away from a feat that hasn’t been accomplished in 100 years of soccer in America.”
We’ll show the game at Westfield Southcenter Shopping Center in the Comcast On Demand Lounge. (click on that link to see its location in the mall near Macy’s). We chose this because it’s our largest such location, but to warn you, the location could be crowded. We suspect diehard Sounders fans won’t care, since we stand up for the games anyway. We will show the game on four HD screens on the wall.
In addition, we’re working with three great places where you can not only cheer and watch the game but also eat and drink, in Kent, Tacoma and Lynnwood:
We’ve posted a new Comcast Neighborhoods segment featuring host Sabrina Register about Lynnwood, a lovely Snohomish County city. You don’t really know Lynnwood if you only know it from Interstate 5 or its mall.
RT @PierceCountyAud: Julie Anderson, PC Auditor, promotes online resources and a new app called MyVote in a Comcast Newsmakers interview. h… 1 hour ago
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