We're excited to share the new PSA that Charlottesville Newsplex created for the 2009 United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring. Anchor/News Director Jim Hanchett asks nonprofits and schools to contact the Volunteer Center for help in registering or developing projects. Thank you, Newsplex!
You may have also heard my new PSA with Jay James playing on the Charlottesville Radio Group stations. Listen here if you haven't heard it. The message in both of these PSA's is the same: Day of Caring project registration is now open for nonprofits and schools. It's not just about painting a wall or planting a bush on Wednesday, September 23, 2009. Day of Caring is about promoting long-term volunteerism in your agency, building partnerships with local businesses and sharing your agency's mission with our community.
Consider the nonprofits where you work, volunteer or those you advocate for and encourage them to register one or more projects. With nearly 3,000 volunteers expected to sign up, we're looking for approximately 300 projects of all sizes and types. Go to the Day of Caring website to register your projects or your volunteer team. Download the Project Development Toolkit if you need project ideas. Additionally, United Way staff is eager to help you brainstorm. Call 434.972.1705 or email swood@unitedwaytja.org.
Posted by Shaele Wood.
On the 2008 United Way Day of Caring, Albemarle Housing Improvement Program (AHIP) partnered with volunteers from State Farm Insurance and the UVA School of Architecture to help make repairs at two homes in the City of Charlottesville. The use of volunteers at AHIP jobs helps cut labor costs so that funds can be used to serve more people in the area. Employees of State Farm Insurance were able to give a home a “face lift,” with a new roof and fresh coat of paint on the exterior. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, employees of the UVA School of Architecture helped prep the interior of a home before AHIP would begin more extensive repairs at the residence. At the end of the day, not only had crucial repairs been made, but the lives of many had been touched by the spirit of service.
Posted by Guest Blogger, Jenifer Klippel, Albemarle Housing Improvement Program
From the volunteer perspective:
A colleague at the U.Va. School of Architecture suggested that for our Day of Caring Project we consider helping a beloved member of the custodial staff who had inherited a house that needed both expensive cosmetic and structural repairs to become livable. I learned that in order to create an official Day of Caring Project we would need an organization to host and sponsor our efforts. All of us were thrilled when Shaele Wood at United Way facilitated AHIP’s partnering with us for this project. Though we were only able to spend half a day volunteering at the site due to our busy academic schedules, it was a fantastic morning in so many ways. AHIP provided the materials and know-how we needed to prep and paint the master bedroom and an upstairs hall closet, and one of our team members brought a lawn mower which he used to spruce up the yard. It was an opportunity for us to know one another as community members rather than simply co-workers, and it was a rare moment when we could give back to someone who is often invisible among us in our daily work. We were all so grateful for the experience and the extra effort put forward by The United Way, AHIP, and the University of Virginia School of Architecture to make our participation possible.
Posted by Guest Blogger, Derry Voysey Wade, U.Va. School of Architecture
With more than 3,000 volunteers expected to register this year, please consider all nonprofit agencies and schools (including child care centers) where you work, volunteer or support and encourage them to register projects. A Project Development Toolkit is available to help organizations identify needed projects, and United Way staff is eager to help, as well. Please visit our website or contact Shaele Wood for more information (434-972-1705).
In June 2008 I started working at UVA Health System. As a new employee within my department, my first task was to coordinate the UVA HS Volunteers for the 2008 United Way Day of Caring. At first, the thought of volunteer coordination seemed overwhelming, especially as a new employee. I thought to myself "how am I going to succeed at this?" Trying to find my way around the hospital was hard enough, now I had been asked to coordinate over 500 volunteers for the United Way Day of Caring?
I can now say that coordinating United Way Day of Caring volunteers from UVA Health System was one my most rewarding experiences. Through this effort, I had the opportunity to meet and interact with many of my colleagues that I now consider friends. I also had the opportunity to work closely with great community organizations to coordinate volunteer teams with their projects.
From assisting with team leader registrations, project selections, and volunteer recruitment, I remained very busy throughout the summer and fall. After months of planning and coordination, I was incredibly excited to see how the United Way Day of Caring would turn out and prayed that the day went according to plans. It was amazing to see so many volunteers at the United Way Day of Caring Kick-off Breakfast Rally. Seeing so many local agencies and organizations come together to make a positive difference in the community was awesome! UVA Health System had 550 volunteers at 53 projects all around the local community. Throughout the day, I visited projects and saw volunteers painting paw prints on school sidewalks, walking dogs at the local SPCA, landscaping around the buildings of local organizations, fence-building at local parks, and visiting with residents in a retirement community. These were but a few projects that occurred during the 2008 United Way Day of Caring. Over 2500 volunteers from local businesses participated in the United Way Day of Caring at hundreds of project sites. I was in awe of the dedication of volunteers to successfully complete their projects. The nonprofit agency staff were very thankful to the volunteers, their skills, and talents. So many new partnerships were formed throughout the community that day.
I am looking forward to the 2009 United Way Day of Caring. I invite you to join a team or register a project and get involved in this community-wide day of volunteering!
Posted by Guest Blogger Carrie Covey, Administrative Programs Coordinator | Community Relations, Outreach, and Service, University of Virginia Health System
With more than 3,000 volunteers expected to register this year, please consider all nonprofit agencies and schools (including child care centers) where you work, volunteer or support and encourage them to register projects. A Project Development Toolkit is available to help organizations identify needed projects, and United Way staff is eager to help, as well. Please visit our website or contact Shaele Wood for more information (434-972-1705).
I know the Charlottesville Newsplex is excited to participate again in The United Way Day of Caring this year! Coming to the Newsplex from a nonprofit background, I think it is such an amazing chance for agencies to showcase their organization and based on that one day of episodic volunteerism, (The Junior League of Charlottesville refers to projects like these as PIADs or Projects in a Day) lots of great things can occur.
One of our projects last year was bowling with The Arc of the Piedmont, I saw someone so moved by the project and the organization (and the people it helped) that she handed one of the employees a cash donation before she left that day! Something about bowling and making friends with this group of people, seeing the tools used by the people in wheel chairs to bowl or how happy some of the people were just to have someone to talk to was amazingly moving. The employees of the Arc were so kind and wonderful to their Adult Day Activity participants and it was such a unique chance to spend time with them. I understand why that lady felt the urge to help! Without being a participant in Day of Caring, our team of volunteers and the group from the other business at that project would never have had that experience. On another note, a friend of mine is a regular volunteer with the Boys & Girls Club and she learned about them through the Day of Caring. I hope as many agencies as possible work with Shaele to come up with projects. The opportunity for September 23 and beyond seems too good to miss!
Posted by Ali Rothschild, Nonprofit Marketing Partner at the Charlottesville Newsplex
With more than 3,000 volunteers expected to register this year, please consider all nonprofit agencies and schools (including child care centers) where you work, volunteer or support and encourage them to register projects. A Project Development Toolkit is available to help organizations identify needed projects, and United Way staff is eager to help, as well. Please visit our website or contact Shaele Wood for more information (434-972-1705).
We extend a big thank you to for their sponsorship of the Day of Caring. Keep an eye out for a series of television PSA's dedicated to project development, promotion and recognition.
The United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring is September 23rd. From now until the end of volunteer and project registration on July 31, we will share stories from our agencies and volunteer teams illustrating the impact that the Day of Caring has on our community. With more than 2,500 volunteers enthusiastically completing 252 projects last September, there is much to celebrate. Read on to learn how volunteers make a difference.
The Salvation Army participated last year with the Day of Caring event. The United Way contacted us to see if we had a need for improving our facility. I notified our staff of this opportunity; they were thrilled to take part in this annual event. They began putting their thinking caps on and came up with many projects that would enhance our programs. After the staff gave me their list of needs. I began to coordinate the projects with the United Way.
The United Way distributed the list of requested projects from our staff; in areas such as the soup kitchen, food pantry, child care center, emergency services and thrift store to many local companies. Approximately 75 volunteers from many of the companies signed up to help in these areas requested.
The volunteers arrived enthusiastic and ready to work. They washed the children's toys, sleeping carts, took the kids from the child-care center on a field trip to a local apple orchard, organized our cabinets in the administrative offices, cleaned closets, updated our poster boards in our Transitional Housing Unit, shampooed carpets, organized our emergency shelter library, painted the walls in our entrance and hallways, built shelving in our storage room and served lunch in our soup kitchen to approximately 50 people. Our largest work site was at the two thrift stores. Our staff was very impressed and thankful for the eagerness and additional support the volunteers provided each department,
Since the event, 50% of those volunteers have returned to volunteer with The Salvation Army. It was a great opportunity for them to meet new friends and to renew friendships. We received very positive feedback from many of the volunteers who participated in this annual event.
Last, this was a great opportunity to recruit and expand our contact list of volunteers and do much needed repairs and projects our budget is often not able to accommodate.
Thank you letters were sent out to all companies who participated at this site.
The Salvation Army values our partnership and continued support with the United Way.
Posted by Guest Bloggers Dan Matthews and Mary Matthews, Salvation Army Corps Captains
With more than 3,000 volunteers expected to register this year, please consider all nonprofit agencies and schools (including child care centers) where you work, volunteer or support and encourage them to register projects. A Project Development Toolkit is available to help organizations identify needed projects, and United Way staff is eager to help, as well. Please visit our website or contact Shaele Wood for more information (434-972-1705).
Summertime in my office only means one thing: time to start planning for the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring. June 1 hits and suddenly the phone calls and the emails start. “When is the Day of Caring?” [September 23rd] “When do we register our projects?” [Registration begins the end of June]. “Can my team volunteer on the Day?” [Sure thing, just contact me and I’ll add you to the registration email].
I is absolutely my favorite part of my job. Connecting thousands of volunteers (okay, last year it was 2,500) with over 100 nonprofit agencies and schools to make a meaningful difference in our community. You read that right – 2,500 volunteers on ONE DAY, out there making a difference in our communities (that’s about 2% of the Charlottesville/Albemarle population volunteering at one time!).
Impressive, right? Oh, absolutely. We’ve enjoyed tremendous growth and enthusiasm by our volunteers. However, with that growth comes growing pains. My greatest challenge each summer is to make sure that we have enough high impact, quality projects for all of those volunteers. Our ultimate goal while planning the Day of Caring is that someone (or hopefully lots of people!) will have a wonderful time volunteering and they will continue to do so throughout the year.
With my “challenge” in mind, I’m on a mission to get the word out there that project registration is just around the corner. Now is the time for nonprofit agency and school staff (in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson) to start thinking about their projects for September. Beyond that, if you are a board member, a volunteer, or an advocate for an agency or school, please take a moment to forward this blog to the nonprofits you work with. The Day of Caring is an excellent opportunity for a nonprofit to introduce itself to a new group of people and businesses who may be inspired to volunteer with an organization year-round, or become donors.
I spent some time on the air with Joe Thomas of WCHV 1260 AM and 94.1 FM this morning, describing the kinds of activities that nonprofits can have done in September. (I brought along our summer intern, Ladi Smith, pictured here with me and Joe). The ever-popular painting and landscaping projects are always welcomed. But there are so many other ways that volunteers can help you. They want to prepare your direct mail pieces; assist with special event activities; plan a recognition event for your regular long-term volunteers; interact with your clients. The sky is the limit. If you have an unmet need, volunteers can tackle it. Visit our website at www.DayOfCaring.info or download our Project Development Toolkit to help generate ideas. My intern, Brandon Oliver, and I are available to meet at your agency or school to help you identify projects. And, keep a lookout on our blog. Soon we will be kicking off our Day of Caring Blog Marathon to help get the word out about registration. If you have a story to share, we welcome guest bloggers. Just email me.
Many thanks to Joe Thomas for giving me time during our Live United segment on his morning show, Jay James at WINA for recording our new Day of Caring PSA and Ali Rothschild at Charlottesville Newsplex for developing our new Day of Caring ad that will start airing in a few weeks. We couldn’t do it without our media partners.
Posted by Shaele Wood.
