OREANDA-NEWS. Employee volunteers from across the Exelon family of companies are celebrating National Volunteer Week (April 11-15) by organizing more than 160 service projects in the communities where they live and work. The projects will range from preparing and packaging food for the hungry to cleaning up local parks to mentoring at-risk youth.

National Volunteer Week is an annual event that encourages people nationwide to work together to improve their communities through service. This is the tenth year Exelon employees are participating in National Volunteer Week by leading service projects this week and throughout April, and recruiting coworkers, friends and family to join them. More than 3,000 Exelon volunteers are expected to contribute 13,000 total hours of service.

"Through their tireless efforts and dedication to important organizations and causes they care most about, our employees make Exelon a strong community partner," said Chris Crane, Exelon's president and CEO. "During National Volunteer Week and all year long, we are proud to support their commitment to giving back to the communities we serve."

Many of the service projects focus on advancing education, particularly in STEM; enhancing the environment; promoting diversity and inclusion; and strengthening neighborhoods. Employees from across the Exelon companies participate, including BGE and Constellation in Maryland, ComEd in northern Illinois, PECO in southeastern Pennsylvania, and Exelon Generation and Exelon Business Services Company in various regions.

Following the merger of Exelon with Pepco Holdings on March 23, 2016, employees of the Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco utilities in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland and New Jersey can look forward to fully participating in Exelon's National Volunteer Week efforts starting next year.

Through its Energy for the Community corporate citizenship program, Exelon maintains a longstanding tradition of charitable giving and service to civic and nonprofit organizations. Last year, Exelon employees recorded nearly 129,000 hours of volunteer service to organizations in the community – a company record.

Examples of the more than 160 National Volunteer Week projects include:

Illinois

• Packaging food for the malnourished with Feed My Starving Children (Aurora, April 11)

• Setting up homeless shelters at Shiloh Baptist Church (Waukegan, April 13)

• Planting trees and maintaining wildlife at the Morton Arboretum (Lisle, April 13)

• Building a home with Habitat for Humanity Chicago (Chicago, April 15)

Maryland

• Mentoring underprivileged youth with Urban Alliance (Baltimore, April 8)

• Building a home with Susquehanna Habitat for Humanity (Charlestown, April 13)

• Preparing meals for those suffering with life-threatening illness (Baltimore, April 20)

• Creating toys and blankets for animals at the Maryland SPCA (Baltimore, April 27)

Pennsylvania

• Cleaning up the Elmwood Park Zoo for spring (Norristown, April 13)

• Preparing and packaging meals for those suffering from illnesses at MANNA (Philadelphia, April 13)

• Sorting donated toys, clothing and books for homeless children at Cradles to Crayons (Philadelphia, April 13)

• Tutoring young children in literacy skills with Philadelphia READS (Philadelphia, April 12)

Texas

•Cleaning up the Willow Waterhole Conservation Reserve (Houston, April 13)

•Participating in a two-day cycling fundraiser with the National MS Society (Katy, April 16)

Follow Exelon's National Volunteer Week activity on social media using the hashtag #ExelonVolunteers.