Beyond the Byline: Make every day a Day of Caring

WILKES-BARRE — On Wednesday, hundreds of volunteers will stop what they would normally be doing to do something that will really help out their community.

These volunteers will take the time to volunteer for the 2021 Day of Caring throughout Wyoming Valley.

The United Way of Wyoming Valley has been holding this annual event for nearly 30 years — this is the 29th annual event — coordinating community-minded volunteers to go out and help area nonprofits complete tasks and jobs that they just can’t afford to get done any other way.

The Day of Caring is set for Wednesday, Sept. 22, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The volunteers will be dispatched to area parks, cemeteries, animal shelters, nonprofits, and many more.

For example, volunteers will be at Wyoming Valley Children’s Association in Forty Fort to do weeding, raking, cleaning toys and therapy equipment.

They will also be at the Friedman JCC in Kingston cleaning up campsites, and at Luzerne County Head Start in Wilkes-Barre to do some outside yard work and cleaning.

The Day of Caring has been supported for years by many local companies that encourage and enable their employees to participate in a day of service to benefit dozens of nonprofit organizations and community initiatives. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 1,000 volunteers would come out to help as many as 70 area nonprofits.

The economic impact of the Day of Caring work would always surpass $100,000 in money saved for the nonprofits.

It really is a critical program that is needed at a critical time when state and federal funding is dwindling and fundraising is at an all-time competitive high.

Bill Jones, United Way of Wyoming Valley’s President/CEO, has always said that the Day of Caring is “a great way to put caring into action.”

That really says it all.

Actually, shouldn’t everybody take pride in their community?

Yearn ago, a volunteer told me she was volunteering to clean up a park near her house because it was a place for kids to play and have fun and that was important.

Another 22 volunteers were helping to weed the flower beds and plant flowers in planters around Millennium Circle along River Street.

Across the Susquehanna River, 13 volunteers were cleaning up the boat launch area at Nesbitt Park.

The United Way Day of Caring is a one-day effort in which hundreds of volunteers throughout the Wyoming Valley come together to build a better community — and they do it one project, one day at a time.

The program offers companies and participating organizations the opportunity to make a positive impact in the community through direct interaction, and it also allows volunteers the chance to learn, first-hand how their contributions benefit the community they live in.

A volunteer at the Day of Caring once told me this:

“We’re getting our hands dirty over here,” she said. “It’s important to help organizations in the area and we get to meet a lot of new people.”

Another volunteer said she felt it was important to keep the River Common area clean because so many drive by it every day and see it. She didn’t want anyone to look at it and be disappointed.

“It’s a good feeling to know that by volunteering you can help make a difference,” she told me.

The Day of Caring is a great program — volunteers get to perform needed tasks for agencies that desperately need the help and by doing so, they get a better understanding of what those agencies do, who they help and they learn just how much each is needed in our community.

It’s a win-win-win situation for sure.

But it’s only for one day. It’s a heckuva effort for one day’s work, but the point is we need more Days of Caring. Every day should be a Day of Caring.

The United Way has given us the blueprint and we should follow it.

So take some initiative within your workplace. Ask your bosses if you could organize a Day of Caring and take a group of co-workers to an agency and see what needs to be done.

You will feel better. The agency will benefit.

And the people served by the agency will be eternally grateful.

Take a day. Care. Help.

Because there really is a critical need out there.