Volunteers will complete Fall Days of Caring projects

About 150 corporate volunteers will tackle 24 projects for local nonprofit agencies Monday through Wednesday as part of United Way of Hancock County's Fall Days of Caring. Following on the heels of a larger event in May, the fall Days of Caring is a response to community interest for nonprofits to receive an extra round of help and provide teams another chance to volunteer this year. "In 2020 because of the pandemic, we had to postpone our May Days of Caring until September," said Sarah Mayle, United Way volunteer coordinator. "There was a great response to that. Some volunteers can't help in May because of their work schedule and were happy another opportunity was available. Nonprofit leaders were happy to tackle projects related to preparing for winter, and everyone liked the weather. We're looking forward to another great event." During Days of Caring, employees of area corporations and small businesses lend a hand to local organizations. Nonprofits in need of help submit projects, volunteer teams register to help, and the United Way matches up the groups. Volunteers then head out in force to complete projects such as landscaping, organizing, painting, cleaning or construction. During the weeklong Days of Caring spring event held in May, more than 550 volunteers completed 79 projects for 15 agencies. Volunteers completed 2,200 service hours, which was a value to the community of more than $63,000. About 150 volunteers are signed up for the smaller, three-day fall event, ready to complete 24 projects for 11 agencies. Participating this fall are Marathon Petroleum Corp., Whirlpool Corp., First National Bank of Pandora, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies, McComb High School Future Farmers of America Club, City Apparel, Gilmore Jasion Mahler Ltd., Reineke & Roush Financial Planning Group, LaRiche Chevrolet Cadillac and a team assembled by Findlay Municipal Court Judge Stephanie Bishop. The agency has worked with Hancock Public Health and the agencies to establish COVID19 safety protocols for each project.