Today I joined 70 other Adobe employees and traded my high-tech tools for gardening and painting tools at a local volunteer project. We spent the morning at Burnett Middle School in San Jose, which is an Adobe Youth Voices site, painting educational murals, tilling soil and tending the garden beds. Although this project was not a typical day at the office, it’s not an unusual activity for Adobe.

This was just one of 50 volunteer projects that took place week in North America as Adobe celebrated Community Action Week. It’s an Adobe tradition that showcases our commitment to active engagement and volunteerism, and I was so proud to see the level of participation from across our locations.

Hundreds of employees helped out at projects that ranged from sorting food for low-income families to assembling care packages for homeless children to prepping materials at a museum. And this is just the beginning; our global locations will hold their Community Action Week later this month. During this week last year nearly 1,000 Adobe volunteers gave 2,500 hours to the communities across the globe. I have no doubt we’ll see that impact grow this year.

Community Action Week is just one of the many ways Adobe supports the communities in which our employees live and work. Each year we donate our time, talent and money to help address key challenges in our communities and promote arts and creativity. In 2010, Adobe invested more than $57 million in community giving.

Community involvement is central to who we are as a company. In fact, one of our core values is “involved,” and it’s powerful to see that value exemplified by our employees as they rolled up their sleeves in service of our community this week and throughout the year.