Day of Service features about 300 helping nonprofits, others
COLUMBUS Ind. (The Republic) — Talk about branching out to make a difference Thursday.
A group of 15 Cummins Inc. Off Highway employees gathered at the former North Christian Church building, now the property of the Bartholomew County Public Library, for basic landscaping on architect Dan Kiley’s 13-acre spread on Tipton Lane in Columbus.
They trimmed trees, cleared brush, and, according to a couple of them, felt a sense of what was printed on the front of their red United Way of Bartholomew County T-shirts: Live United.
That message always serves as a continuing theme of the local nonprofit’s Day of Service county-wide.
“I just want to work together with others to be able to support the community,” said volunteer Alexey Pivovarov, who worked at Columbus Animal Care Services on the day last year, spreading mulch.
He mentioned that the group’s efforts are part of Cummins’ Every Employee Every Community initiative encouraging local involvement.
As he stood near a shade tree, co-workers hustled all around him to snip low-hanging branches and carry them to a pile to be carried away. He said he has read articles about and is impressed with United Way’s impact.
Figures show that United Way’s programs and outreach touch more than one-third of Bartholomew County residents. The Cummins team was among 300 volunteers who worked amid a variety of projects.
Besides that, 400 people — one of the largest crowds in recent years — ate lunch at Amazing Joe’s Grill as part of the kickoff for United Way’s annual fundraising campaign.
The local Day of Service began in 2013 as a way for nonprofits and other agencies with limited budgets get needed work done, including cleaning, repairing and related efforts. The National Nonprofit Leadership Center’s estimates show that each volunteer hour is worth more than $33 to a nonprofit entity.
Chuck Kime, executive director of Foundation for Youth in Columbus, understands. A group from Healthy Communities pulled weeds at FFY on Thursday. A team from First Financial Bank stuffed gift bags for fifth-graders who will visit Youth Camp. And volunteers from First Call Staffing painted signs for FFY’s float for December’s Electric Lights Parade.
“I just don’t know what we would do without this kind of support,” Kime said.
Magen Pillar, United Way’s communications and marketing director, mentioned, “All of the projects are vitally important to our agencies so they can concentrate on serving families in Bartholomew County,” Pillar said. “Volunteers are doing critical work that helps the agencies run efficiently.”
“Agencies have told us that they save their projects for our volunteer days and that their staff looks forward to these days all year so they get projects completed they otherwise would not have time to do.”
This article originally appeared in The Republic.