Granite United Way Day of Caring a Success

Granite United Way hosted its annual Day of Caring event in Merrimack County on Sept. 10, and more than 450 volunteers – a record high for this region – helped complete 64 different ”wish list” projects. Any nonprofit was welcome to submit projects for the event.

Volunteers ranged from students at the Parker Academy to individuals from the community to corporations like Lincoln Financial Group sending 84 volunteers from their office. Each of them received a bright yellow T-shirt emblazoned with “VOLUNTEER” down the side – hard to miss the sea of yellow that mobilized in the Greater Concord area.

Volunteers were matched with projects and had an opportunity to stop in at White Park for lunch before and after their volunteer shift – lunch was prepared by long-time volunteer, Mike Janis, who has been cooking for these volunteers for countless years.

“The turnout for this year’s Day of Caring event is a tribute to the commitment individuals and organizations have to this community,” said Val Guy, Senior Director of Regional Impact for Granite United Way. “We have an outstanding Day of Caring committee that works tirelessly to make this a success and this year we had our largest number of volunteers for this area.”

Some of the highlights from the day include:

• Penacook Community Center hosting 72 volunteers who worked on everything from gardening to painting.
• Live and Let Live horse farm had 30 volunteers helping to clean out stalls, fix paddocks and painting.
• The Capitol Center for the Arts hosted several volunteers who assisted them with projects that have been on their bucket list for a while.

Sponsors for the 2014 Day of Caring were Convenient MD and Merrimack County Savings Bank.

Day of Caring events were also held in Granite United Way’s Northern Region and Southern Region. On Sept. 8, the Upper Valley hosted a Day of Caring, and the Central Region hosted theirs on Sept. 19. All of the Day of Caring events will have included more than 1,500 volunteers working on 160 different projects across New Hampshire and Vermont.

Granite United Way is an experienced and trusted organization dedicated to leveraging the resources of investors and volunteers to create lasting change by addressing the underlying causes of our community’s most pressing needs. Granite United Way is committed to improving the lives of individuals and families by supporting programs in the areas of education, income and health. Granite United Way works with over 1,000 companies, 22,000 investors and thousands of volunteers every year to make our communities a better place.

Granite United Way serves the Southern (Manchester/Derry/Salem), Merrimack County, North Country, Northern and Upper Valley Regions of NH and VT as well as Windsor County, VT. For more information, visit graniteuw.org, find us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter (@graniteuwnh).

Submitted text and courtesy photos.