Saturday, tens of thousands of Comcast employees around the world volunteered for the 16th annual Comcast Cares Day.
The company website says it’s an effort to “make change happen as we celebrate our year-round commitment to volunteerism.”
In North Texas, NBC 5 and Telemundo 39, both Comcast-owned television stations, partnered with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas for an event called “Math Blazers.”
“It’s part of our STEM initiative to introduce young people, and our teenagers, to the incredible world of math—and we do it in a fun way!” said Charles English, President of Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Dallas.
English helped host a lengthy rollcall of NBC 5 & Telemundo 39 volunteers at a Boys and Girls Club in Grand Prairie.
NBC 5 volunteers included members from our digital team, long-time floor directors, morning anchors and producers, reporters, meteorologists (both early morning and late night), those who work behind the camera and the ones who want to keep it that way.
The best part for NBC 5 President and CEO Tom Ehlmann “Oh, it’s just being with the kids,” Ehlmann said after a morning of volunteering in the classroom. “The kids are having a blast and it’s just very contagious.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
Together, they all flexed their brains to work on math skills.
"We can also create fun with math,” English said. “Math does not have to be boring! And as I'm always encouraging our young people—math can literally take you places.”
English explained the importance of volunteers dedicating time to help young students with their math skills. “Many of our high school students are struggling with the math portion of the SAT, and we are going to try and intervene and correct that at the first grade level, second grade level, and by the third grade they are going to pass that state exam called the STAR!” English said with enthusiasm.
The pinnacle of the volunteer event—was a math relay in the gym. It included a series of physical tests (pushups, jumping jacks, and jumping rope) leading up to a series of math problems using a white board to answer.
“So that puts them in a sense of competing with their colleagues—but that’s the real world we’re introducing them to as well: that you succeed with success, and success comes from work,” English said.
As for the hardest working volunteer during Comcast Cares Day in North Texas?
NBC 5 Chief meteorologist David Finfrock was a standout among his co-workers. He did jumping jacks or pushups with every child in his relay lane.
Comcast Cares Day focuses on getting employees to dedicate time to volunteering in their communities. For NBC 5, volunteering is a part of our culture all year.
“We do a lot of events and our employees are asked to volunteer at a lot of events throughout the year,” said Ehlmann. “We do over 200 community events and it's just what we do as a local television station. It's important to us to serve the community and to give something back.”
