HOPE to get own almost ‘extreme’ makeover, courtesy of Comcast

By Owen Boss

GARDNER — The House of Peace and Education will be receiving a free makeover on Saturday, compliments of the Comcast Corp.’s annual Comcast Cares Day. The annual event provides the more than 50,000 national Comcast employees and their families the opportunity to help various charity programs within their respective communities. Maxyne Schneider, executive director of HOPE, said that the cosmetic help is much appreciated because little has been done to improve the appearance of the building since it opened in 1996. “The majority of the money we have had donated has gone to programming,” said Ms. Schneider. “We have received some special grants to insulate the building and repair the roof, but we have done little to spruce the place up.” Marc Goodman, Comcast spokesman, said that there are several projects slated to improve the building, including repainting the kitchen, cleaning up the yard, and transforming a spare room into a learning environment for after-school students and various job training programs. Ms. Schneider added that they were reluctant to put donation money toward painting the whole front stairwell and the kitchen, which prepared more than 2,000 meals for children in the last year alone. “I am just so delighted,” said Ms. Schneider. “I’ve been describing this coming event to different people, and my term has been that it is a nearly extreme makeover.” She added that the budget for the project is constantly growing because local vendors are consistently donating materials Comcast needs. According to Mr. Goodman, there will be thousands of employees in the region taking a day out of their weekend to support local community programs. “Comcast Cares Day is an annual day of companywide community service, and every Comcast Cares Day we are at a different community site that is chosen based upon feedback from local officials,” said Mr. Goodman. “This year we will have more than 4,700 employees and their families fanning out across 45 sites in New England.” oboss@thegardnernews.com

Appeared on Page 4 on 4/29/2008 (Vol. 206 No. 102)