Despite the pandemic, hundreds of volunteers joined us last year in our mission to fight for the health, education, and financial stability of those in our community. While many volunteer job duties changed to ensure safety, we still saw many willing hands and hearts working for the benefit of all. When people come together bringing their passion, skills, and vision to the table, we accomplish so much more than any of us can do alone. That’s why we are United Way. United, we can make things happen.
We operate through giving, advocating, and volunteering. We believe that these three cruxes of generating change in our community is how we can ensure that everyone has the potential to succeed. Volunteering is no small slice of the pie. Every September, with our annual Day of Caring, we dedicate an entire work day to helping out others. Day of Caring mobilizes volunteers throughout Story County, working on projects from organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs of Story County to Reiman Gardens to ChildServe, and more. Pre-COVID, nearly 400 volunteers each year could be seen wearing the recognizable LIVE UNITED tee as they pulled weeds, read to children, built benches, wrote thank you cards, painted free little libraries, and beyond.
Last year, for the first time ever, we held projects over a three month span, both in-person and virtual opportunities. Again this year, we will be hosting projects of all kinds so there is bound to be something for everyone! Volunteers save our community organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. Your willingness to donate your time and talent transforms our community for the better and we are proud to have so many of you on board.
You can join us. On September 24 we plan to paint the town (literally!) with our volunteers yet again. If your business or organization has a project that could use some volunteer sweat equity, visit our website at www.uwstory.org/day-caring-project. We are lucky to live in a generous community where there’s always a helping hand ready to give back.
If you would like to volunteer on Day of Caring, visit www.uwstory.org/volunteer and fill out the volunteer form. We will add you to the list to be notified when our Day of Caring project sign-up becomes available later this summer.