More than 450 people, Comcast employees from the Aberdeen area along with their families, friends and community allies, participated in a volunteer project last week at Central Park Elementary School in partnership with a local Eagle Scout troop.

This was Aberdeen’s largest Comcast Cares Day project in the event’s 17-year history, according to a company statement. This year, the company expects more than 100,000 volunteers participated at project sites around the world.

“More than 4,700 employees call Washington home, and giving back to our own communities means a lot to us,” said Amy Lynch, regional vice president of Comcast’s Washington region. “This year we worked alongside our community partners to help ensure that people from all walks have access to the resources, services and technology that can help improve their quality of life.”

Comcast volunteers worked on a variety of maintenance and beautification efforts around the school’s grounds. For their main project, volunteers built a “Kinder Garden,” a series of planter boxes where students can plant, maintain, and learn the science behind how things grow, which will provide hands-on experiences to supplement their science curriculum.

Volunteers also worked to replace bushes and trees outside of the school’s front entrance with new plants and flowers, while others spread several cubic yards of wood chips throughout the playground, repaired basketball hoops, cleaned up the lawn, and repainted the covered playground and other outdoors areas.

Central Park Elementary School students also helped in advance by doing different cleanup and planting projects, and many local companies contributed to the project by offering free coffee and food, as well as materials and supplies at a reduced cost.