CaribPR Wire

MIAMI, Sept. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — FedEx Corp. launches its seventh annual FedEx Cares Week, providing volunteer and service opportunities for employees around the world.  Close to 4,000 FedEx volunteers worldwide will donate a combined 20,000 hours to serving local organizations dedicated to improving the quality of life in the communities where FedEx employees live and work.

The week will be held September 12-17 across 28 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). More than 900 FedEx employees will volunteer their time to support a variety of community activities including building improvements and restorations for schools, orphanages and homes for the elderly and mentally disabled; teaching underprivileged children about their history; visiting and providing for sick children, the elderly, and HIV patients; environmental cleanup and reforestation projects.

“FedEx Cares Week creates deeper connections between our FedEx employees and the local communities we serve,” said Stephanie Butler, manager of Global Citizenship at FedEx.  ”Every day FedEx employees passionately help customers solve logistics challenges. Through FedEx Cares Week, our employees extend that passion to help local communities with critical social issues.”

FedEx Cares Week serves as the formal kick-off for the annual U.S. FedEx United Way campaign.  In addition to volunteering hundreds of thousands of hours each year, FedEx and its employees gave over $175 million over the past fifteen years.

This year’s service projects in LAC include:

• Building Improvements and restorations for schools, orphanages, homes for the elderly and mentally disabled in Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Guatemala, Grand Cayman, Jamaica, Martinique, Miami, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands and Venezuela.
• Connecting underprivileged children with their history in Chile by taking them on a tour of a museum and organizing activities.
• Visiting a home for the elderly and a clinic for HIV patients in Puerto Rico to provide the residents with food and activities.
• Organizing a party for children with various illnesses in a hospital in the Virgin Islands and providing them with food and critical supplies including: pampers, formula, baby bottles and baby clothes.
• Environmental cleanup and reforestation projects in Bermuda, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico and the US Virgin Islands.

For more information about FedEx Cares Week and the FedEx commitment to volunteerism and the communities it serves, please visit fedexcares.com.