Each year in September United Way of Anchorage hosts our annual Day of Caring. It is the largest volunteer effort in our state and sparks the volunteer spirit in Anchorage. Businesses around Anchorage mobilize teams of employees who take a day to volunteer and give back to the community. For businesses, Day of Caring is an opportunity for community service, meaningful engagement with a local nonprofit, and team building for their staff. For agencies, it is an opportunity to get a large project done in one day with the help of motivated volunteers, and to introduce their organization to a business in the community and develop a relationship with their employees.
This year on September 11th we had 43 projects at 27 organizations completed by the 19 company teams that participated. From those companies, we had 430 volunteers for a total of 1,572.5 hours. In addition to our volunteer day, we hosted our Day of Caring Food Drive on September 13th. This year 207,492 pounds of food were donated as well as $204,526 in monetary donations.
Thank you to all the volunteers, companies, and organizations that participated this year. Day of Caring would not have been successful without you!
Check out our Day of Caring photo album here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmH1Lx93
Here are a few testimonials from some of the agencies talking about what was accomplished by the volunteer teams they had on Day of Caring:
From Ronnie Brown at Kids Corps. on their Northrim Bank Volunteers:
"The volunteers came in the morning and painted our front visitor/parent areas and it made such a difference in the whole atmosphere. This would not have been done in such a timely manner if it had not been for them. Our afternoon volunteers cleaned the playground equipment, scrubbed the walls and fence where the children had drawn with chalk. It was a beautiful clean canvas for the start of a new year. Thank you so much for the Day Of Caring. It was a great experience."
From Jesse Hooper at Girl Scouts of Alaska on volunteers from Alaska USA:
"About a dozen volunteers restored our ADA trail by removing willow and alder overgrowth. A second crew assisted with our summer camp closeout by transferring, cleaning, and organizing program supplies. Thank you again for the support and connecting us with Alaska USA - they were an amazing crew!"
From Michelle Fehribach at Anchorage Parks and Recreation on volunteers from Providence Information Services Team:
"We had a stellar group of volunteers join us from Providence's Information Services Team. They shoveled mulch into wheelbarrows, dumped it along soft-surface trails throughout Goose Lake Park, and spread it out to formalize some of those trails. This was a huge help for our Enchanted and Haunted Trails event, and made the trails smoother, more established, and safer."
From Sarah Burtner at Habitat for Humanity Anchorage on volunteers from Rasmuson Foundation:
"The wonderful volunteers from the Rasmuson Foundation and I had a great time tackling three different repurposing projects at the ReStore. We disassembled, sanded, painted, and (re-)assembled parts of a lamp-to-desk organizer, a vanity-to-rolling work station, and an entertainment center-to-mini bar, and tossed around a lot of creative ideas! These items are on display at the SEED Lab at the Anchorage Museum, as part of our joint collaboration to educate the public about both the potential of repurposing items from the ReStore and the purpose of the store, which is to fund Habitat for Humanity's affordable housing mission."
