Participants at MultiCare Adult Day Health Center couldn’t get out to the Puyallup Fair themselves, so volunteers for the United Way’s annual Day of Caring brought the fair to them. In addition, volunteers at Gateways for Youth and Families pitched in and helped with landscaping and gardening and even constructed a maze. All around Pierce County, volunteers took the time to show that they cared in the United Way’s annual day of charity work, community support and cooperation, this year Sept. 22.

The United Way’s Day of Caring had begun with an official kickoff event in years past, but not this year. After taking its volunteers’ advice from past Days of Caring, the United Way began this year with a leadership breakfast and got right into the volunteer work with no delay.

Each year, organizations apply to the United Way to be the recipients of the volunteers’ hard work and companionship. The United Way then matches the chosen organizations with volunteers sent from several corporations as part of community outreach programs, depending on how the corporations want to participate.

“It’s about working together,” remarked Melissa Parker, senior account executive for the United Way.

“It’s good to have a day away from the everyday work schedule to give back to the community,” she said of the volunteers. “And the thing is, they have fun.”

Fun abounded at the Adult Day Health Center, where those it assists are referred to as participants. They include adults with chronic medical conditions, developmental disabilities, dementia and memory loss, who are assisted in regaining and maintaining as much independence as possible. The United Way has included MultiCare in its Day of Caring for several years, according to Kathy Moisio, manager of the health center.

Roughly 25 volunteers from Mutual of Enumclaw and Mellon Analysts put on a carnival for the facility’s participants, complete with face painting, fun, food and games.

“It’s huge for them,” Moisio said of the participants. “They’ll talk about it for weeks. They’ll immediately ask when we’ll do it again.”

In addition to helping the participants have a good time, the carnival games were also used to help them meet their therapy goals.

Dropping pennies into boxes in an aquarium for prizes helped some of them develop their fine motor skills, for example, while the Go Fish fishing pond helped others work toward better standing endurance and balance. According to Moisio, many of the participants had so much fun that they didn’t even realize they were getting their therapy.

In addition to the Day of Caring, the United Way puts on more specialized days of community service in order to get everyone involved.

After each United Way of Pierce County annual meeting, many of the CEOs and high-level business leaders who attend participate in the yearly Executive Day of Caring. They put aside their ties and briefcases for the rest of the day in exchange for gardening tools, food handler’s gloves and trash bags and give back to the community directly with local nonprofit organizations and funded agencies.
In addition, middle school and high school students from churches, schools and other community organizations volunteer their time each year for the Youth Day of Caring.

According to the United Way’s web site, over 350 teenagers from more than 40 organizations came out for breakfast, rally and a day of community service last year, joined by over 100 adults from the community. In addition to benefiting their communities, the Youth Day of Caring, celebrating the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., helps to teach kids the good they can do by getting involved in their communities and educates them about community problems and how they can help.