CableCares Left A Lot Behind in L.A.

The charitable arm of the cable industry's annual convention generated more than $225,000 in charitable donations to local Los Angeles causes in May.

Some 245 people also volunteered time to CableCares activities, including at the South Central Los Angeles youth shelter A Place Called Home during the May 11-13 Cable Show, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association said.

In three years of good works at cable conventions, CableCares has raised some $1.3 million in donations, equipment and financial aid, in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and L.A., the NCTA said.

Some L.A. specifics: CableCares will sponsor 18 children to attend A Place Called Home's "Bridge to the Future" program, for a year, via a generous financial donation. Those children will be the first in their family to attend college. APCH, a youth shelter in South Central Los Angeles, received 20 Mac laptop computers from Intel, with Microsoft MacOffice software; 100 soccer balls from Gol TV; basketball rims and other gear from ESPN; art supplies from VCI; furniture from SiTV and two Flip Video cameras from Cisco.

Difference Makers International (DMI) donated a one-day workshop, "Giving Kids A Voice for Positive Social Change," through DMI's acknowledgment program.

Furniture and household items from The Cable Show's My World exhibit went to the local Los Angeles community -- and an interactive white board went to Gompers Middle School, one of Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's "partnership" schools in South Los Angeles.

The Sportsman Channel donated 280 pounds of meat to the homeless, and volunteers served 1,000 meals to men, women and children as part of its Hunt.Fish.Feed. initiative.