Nearly 600 Hachette Book Group volunteers took part in the publisher’s second annual Community Service Day, which was held Wednesday, April 17, across eight HBG locations. According to HBG, Community Service Day, which was organized by Ashley Orlando, HBG’s human resources manager, allows employees to volunteer together in a wide variety of activities.

This year, HBG partnered with 48 organizations and held 70 projects and events. Among the activities held were preparing food in community kitchens, delivering hot meals to homebound seniors, reading with children, repainting rooms in community centers, gardening in green spaces, caring for animals in rescue shelters, assisting with literacy and mental health awareness projects, and crafting handmade cards for hospitalized children.

The list of organizations that HBG teamed with for Community Service Day is a varied one and includes Bide-a-Wee, the Boone County Humane Society, Food Bank NYC, the Franklin Park Zoo, GallopNYC, Goddard Riverside, Gods Love We Deliver, the Humane Society of Boulder Valley, the Lebanon Public Library, Lunch Break, Nashville Rescue Mission, Ronald McDonald House, Tree House Books, and Warm Up America.

HBG CEO Michael Pietsch, who helped deliver meals to homebound seniors, said he was proud of the staff’s participation. “Our second annual Community Service Day was an important and inspiring day for Hachette Book Group,” Pietsch noted, adding that the day “has quickly established itself as an annual tradition at HBG, and I look forward to seeing it continue to grow.”