Doug McCrory

McCrory Teams With Community Volunteers to Spruce-Up Rawson School on Comcast Cares Day

State Senator Doug McCrory (D-Hartford) joined more than 400 local Comcast NBCUniversal employees, their families and others on Saturday, April 22 to “make change happen” as they volunteered to spruce-up the Sarah J. Rawson Elementary School in Hartford for Comcast Cares Day.

Sen. McCrory joined Comcast Cable President and CEO Dave Watson to work on indoor and outdoor beautification projects that included creating a green, sustainable and healthy outdoor space and makeovers to the school’s STEM and VEX Robotics rooms.

The Rawson School holds particular meaning for Sen. McCrory, who started his teaching career here and who greeted several former students among the volunteers who now work at Comcast.

“A lot has changed in 20 years; I think the Rawson School has gotten better, but it still needs some TLC,” Sen. McCrory said. “Today, I and a whole lot of good people from Comcast and the community made the type of commitment that makes a difference: we put our time and our energy into this school, just like parents and teachers do every day. And we had a whole lot of support from nonprofits and local businesses. It was a great day, a great show of caring for the school and all that Rawson means to Hartford.”

In addition to the school work, there was a special Earth Day tree-planting dedication and a surprise grant to the school for $25,000, courtesy of the Comcast Foundation.

A number of local nonprofit organizations including United Way of Central & Northeastern Connecticut, Urban League of Greater Hartford, Easterseals Capital Region and Eastern Connecticut, KNOX, Leadership Greater Hartford and Village for Families and Children, were also part of the festivities. Local businesses also contributed to the day’s success, with donations of services and materials. Voices of Women of Color, Madonna Electric, Big Y Foods Inc., Tri-Wire, Triple Stitch, Café Services, PPC, Ryan Business, Northern Nurseries, Inc, BTS Graphics & Printing, LLC and Accenture all pitched in and provided supplies from Legos, paint and mulch, to coffee, donuts, and more to feed the many volunteers.

From using technology to create positive change, such as wiring community centers and libraries and teaching digital literacy skills, to mentoring youth, to beautifying parks, Comcast NBCUniversal employees volunteer on Comcast Cares Day to make a lasting impact. This year, more than 100,000 volunteers participated in nearly 1,000 projects across the country and around the world. To date, volunteers have contributed nearly 5 million volunteer hours at 7,700 projects since Comcast Cares Day began in 2001.