Mahaska County United Way Promotes ‘Day of Caring’
Brad Hannon and Nathan Johnson help load old mulch into a Musco truck so it can be hauled away.
Oskaloosa, Iowa – The sounds of tractors, power tools and laughter were heard all around Oskaloosa today as the ‘Day of Caring’ made it’s impact on Oskaloosa.
“I’ve had some classic cases of the empowered volunteer that gets a lot of stuff done and finishes projects a lot quicker than anticipated, which is what this day is all about. It’s been going great”. Brianne Fitzgerald, Executive Director of the Mahaska County United Way, said of projects that were getting done ahead of schedule. This allowed some of the groups to move on to help in other areas.
Fitzgerald said that, “over 180 volunteers were situated around at 18 different projects, giving about 861 hours of volunteer time today”.
The playground at Edmundson Park was the recipient of attention from a large group of volunteers that helped to remove mulch and clean up around the playground area. Employees of Musco and the YMCA along with the Lions Club of Oskaloosa were all on hand to help out.
Dawn Collins of the Mahaska County YMCA was there with staff and board members helping rehab the park. “The Y has benefited from every ‘Day of Caring’ since it started in Oskaloosa and now, for the first time, we get to give back. That’s just a really good feeling”. The Y has recently restructured their membership rates and Collins said, “It’s really exciting. I’m very pleased with all the work our volunteers have put in over the past year.”
The pace was furious as groups of people walked blocks on end painting house numbers on the curbs of Oskaloosa
Debbie Doty of the Oskaloosa Lions Club stated, “This is what the Lions is all about; getting out and helping the community. It’s exactly what we’re in the club for. And we work on environmental projects throughout the year as well as projects for vision and hearing preservation. So this works as an environmental project for us. Lets us get seen as well as give back to the community”.
Fitzgerald stated that another large group of people were out painting addresses on the curbs. The reason for this would be to help identify homes or properties in the event of total destruction. This type of destruction was evident this past summer in Joplin, and with curb numbers, it helps responders reach people quicker that are in need.
So I headed across town to see what that group of volunteers, being mostly from Mahaska Health Partnership, were doing. There you could find backaches waiting to happen as people bent over putting down a layer of white paint to help contrast the black numbers that would soon be spray painted on.
This group from Cargill helped to rehabilitate this porch in Oskaloosa as part of 'Day of Caring'
Lesa Gangestad, Jill Mitrisin and Lisa Nelson were just 3 of the many volunteers who were working their way down some residential streets on the East side of downtown. There they were teamed up with others from MHP and also the Oskaloosa Fire Department.
One of the last spots I made it to was along 5th Ave West. Here a group from Cargill was working on fixing and painting a porch. Matt Herbert is part of the Project Engineering Team at Cargill and explained why they chose to participate. “We wanted to do an event that would help us get a little closer as a team, for one, and we thought it would be really nice to do something for the community, as well”.
The ‘Day of Caring’ was split into two shifts, of sorts, and the groups met at the parish for a boxed lunch before either returning to work, or heading off to the next project. Osky News thanks all of those that volunteered their time and energy to the day.
