The United Way Estevan once again enjoyed record-breaking support for its eighth annual Day of Caring on Wednesday.
More than 145 volunteers helped out at 43 projects around the community during the day. Both numbers set records for the initiative.
“I think each year we’re seeing more and more businesses come on board, and give us some employees,” said Day of Caring committee member Roberta DeRosier. “They pay their employees to come help us out. We had well over 30 businesses this year who are paying their employees to volunteer.”
One of the businesses allowed its staff to stay at the site for the entire day, even though the employees were only supposed to be there for the morning. The project they were assigned to turned out to be more demanding than expected.
There was a good variety of projects this year, too. Several member agencies had work around their sites that the volunteers completed. Other organizations benefitted from work completed through the Day of Caring.
But the United Way also had a lot of people step forward to ask with help for their yard work and other maintenance projects, such as window washing and painting.
“Right now we’re tearing down a shed for an older gentleman in the community who, otherwise, wouldn’t have anybody to tear down for him,” said DeRosier.
A barbecue lunch was served at the Estevan Alliance Church, and DeRosier was hopeful that all the volunteers would be there.
DeRosier encouraged those who couldn’t be part of the Day of Caring to help someone out later on that day, or at some other time.
“Day of Caring isn’t just about doing our projects,” said DeRosier. “It’s about caring for somebody else. Go buy groceries for somebody, go visit a senior, go weed somebody’s lawn.”
