Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 29, 1994 TAG: 9406290126
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A group of Carilion Health Care volunteers, busy painting the YMCA's gymnasium, served as the backdrop. Volunteers and organizers alike wore T-shirts created for this year's Day of Caring.
At the same time, many of the more than 1,000 other volunteers who participated in Tuesday's event were performing community service jobs at United Way partner agencies throughout the Roanoke Valley - the goal of the Day of Caring. Activities included everything from washing cars to updating agency Rolodexes.
Don Reid, chairman for the event, said the United Way of the Roanoke Valley's Day of Caring is one of the largest of its kind in the country.
"It's an opportunity for people to feel good about themselves," said Reid, area manager for Bell Atlantic.
Raleigh Campbell, director of the Council of Community Services, took Reid's comments a step further.
"It's amazing what you can do in a day," he said.
At the Greenvale School, on the grounds of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, Central Fidelity Bank employees Karen Clark and Cathy McKinney were rocking infants at the school's day-care center. Both said they chose the activity from a list of several Day of Caring jobs Central Fidelity employees could sign up for.
The infants - 8-month-old Antonio Weakley and 10-week-old Ashley Woodward - seemed to be satisfied with Clark and McKinney's decision. Antonio was fast asleep in Clark's arms, and Ashley was happily sucking on a bottle courtesy of McKinney.
Jeanette Barbour, site director at the school, said the Day of Caring "gives people in the community a chance to see what we really do."
Volunteers from the medical center built a playground at the school during the United Way's first Day of Caring last year, she said. The 1993 Day of Caring drew 2,200 volunteers.
Butch Dodd, an employee at Halmode Apparel Inc., participated in a discussion on child care held at the Jefferson Center, sponsored by the Council of Community Services.
Dodd and his wife, who works for Blue Cross/Blue Shield, joined a group of Halmode employees in a lively debate that included insight on problems and possible solutions.
"Education was the most important thing to come out of the discussion," he said. "We can learn and then spread what we know to other people in the community."
Focus groups also met to discuss teen pregnancy.
As the day wound down, volunteers could still be seen in their T-shirts, hard at work. Several volunteers were spreading grass seed at the TRUST Shelter on Elm Avenue. The interior and exterior of the building also were painted Tuesday.
It is amazing what you can do in a day.
by CNB