United Way's 16th Annual Day of Caring
On your way to work this morning you may have noticed hordes of beautification volunteers working throughout the city. I spotted about forty volunteers getting down and dirty at the Grace Manor on North Street near Kleinhans Circle. It was there that I spoke to Kim Williams, Activities Director at the manor. She told me that this was a huge effort on the behalf of the United Way. Each year the United Way reaches out to the corporate community to ask for the volunteer help of their employees. As I looked around the manor grounds I noticed that the majority of the volunteers had come from Tops Markets. One of the volunteers, Kristen Dubaj, told me that this was her only day off, but she wanted to show up and help. She was also proud to represent the Tops on Broadway and Bailey. The other volunteers on the site were from the Bonadio Group.
Upwards of 3500 volunteers met downtown this morning at HSBC Arena to have a quick breakfast and plan for the day. From there, volunteers cased the city - many can be found, at this moment, cleaning up city playgrounds and other hi-profile locations in need of help. The supplies needed to pull off this massive undertaking come from the sites that are being worked on. Only the labor is donated, even though there are always some angels waiting in the wings to help donate to the effort (if the site has no equipment, flowers, etc.) If you drive by Grace Manor on your way home, you will notice that the grounds are immaculate - flowers and plants now line North Street and the bushes have all been trimmed.
Update: Just biked past the HSBC Arena and saw a ton of volunteers enjoying an afternoon lunch while listening to live music from the Steam Donkeys. Not a bad way to wrap up a day of volunteering!
Thanks to the United Way for organizing this group effort. And thanks to the employees of the corporations for caring enough to get involved. To sign up for next year's Day of Caring, click here.
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mmiller
There are about 20 DOC volunteers from PraxAir helping the Buffalo Federation of Women's Clubs maintain the Breast Cancer Awareness Garden in the Memorial Dr. traffic circle in front of the terminal. These great ladies have maintained this circle for 5 seasons now, all voluntary. I'm so glad they're getting the help this year!
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cw5363
I've done the Day of Caring for the past 5 years now. This time we were at City Mission. It makes you appreciate how well off you are and it's good to help out others. And you get a view of these places that you would not normally see.
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heathersmiles
I wish that we would do this more than once a year.
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lyneej
Speaking on behave of Grace Manor… The Day of Caring at Grace Manor was great, the volunteers did so much more than we asked them to do, it really is an excellent event put on my the United Way and we appreciate it greatly. The Tops Markets and The Bonadio Group volunteers were all wonderful. They Painted the Basement floor of Grace Manor and Beautified the outside front area of Grace Manor. Kate from Tops show up with coffee, bagels, water, muffins and doughnuts for everyone along with the items already supplied by Grace Manor. Everyone got right to work and when they ran out of mulch for the garden area, The Bonadio Group volunteers placed a call to the office and up shows a Truck load of mulch. These volunteers went above and beyond the call and we are so grateful to them all. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! If I may make 2 corrections to the story that we are so grateful to have printed. 1) Kim Johnson was the person you spoke with regarding the event and 2) she is the ASSISTANT Director of Activities at Grace Manor.
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