Beyond the painting, mulching, cleaning, and building, you
made a difference in the lives of hundreds of Union County residents.
Please browse these photos and comments to get an idea of the scope of this
awesome community event. Click HERE to read the story that appeared in the Marysville Journal Tribune
on Wednesday, May 21.
(Left) Those are some bright shirts! Why this color? Because United Way of Union County
is celebrating its “golden” anniversary this year: 50 years of bringing neighbors and resources together to improve
lives in Union County!
(Right) Like bees in a hive, more than 345 volunteers enjoy breakfast before heading out for a busy day of improving
their communities.
My husband and I were very gratified by the gracious encouragement that came
from our assigned elderly lady. I have almost never had the experience of steady encouragement and thankfulness
providing an inner steady stream of energy for the tasks. It was a lesson provided to us by the Lord. It made us
wish we could stay all day. One duty was tilling her garden and another was assembly of her newly-bought glider.
Though we have never undertaken this type of assembly, she continued to give us confidence. Once tilled, she went
ahead and planted her garden while we worked, being so grateful for her awaited tilled garden that she went right
to it in our presence!
Cathy
(Left) Honda Heroes Huddle. The group from Honda of America goes
over their gameplan before heading out to work.
(Center) Honda volunteers take out the trash for neighbors in the Windsor senior neighborhood.
(Right) Vanna White tryouts? No, just another successful Community Care Day planting project by Honda volunteers
in the Windsor area.
A group of 20 students from the North Union High School FFA completed a number of projects
within walking distance of their school in Richwood, painting, washing windows, and doing work for area senior
citizens.
Read what the beneficiaries of their hard work have to say (below):
Dear United Way,
My husband Paul and I would like you to know what a lot of help we received from North Union FFA on Community Care
Day! Three volunteers arrived early and worked non-stop for hours! In addition to trimming shrubs, they removed
vines from the house, tore up weeds, sawed down unwanted saplings, removed limbs from our roof, and climbed up
and cleaned out our gutters! They hauled away countless wheelbarrow loads of lawn debris.
We were astonished at how much work they did! They were very friendly and very polite. Also, when asked, they were
happy to teach us how best to handle keeping up the work they did. This is important because we can now do some
of the work ourselves.
Paul and I thank you very much for organizing Community Care Day!
(Left) Volunteers from the International Family Center weed a flower garden on W. 6th
St.
(Right) Members of the Union County Builders Association team up to paint the hallway at LEADS Head Start.
(Left) Scotts volunteers give the conference room at the American Red Cross its first
makeover in more than 30 years.
(Right) Scotts volunteers visit with residents and enhance the landscaping at the Milcrest Nursing Center.
Union Rural Electric associates weatherized an 8th St. home for a Marysville senior
citizen, which will save her hundreds of dollars on her energy bills. Here's what one volunteer had to say:
I participated in weatherizing a home for an elderly woman yesterday, and
I loved it. She was just such a wonderful person and she really appreciated all we did for her. She really just
needed someone to talk to, too, so I think I made a friend. I am planning on visiting her again and seeing if there
is any way I can do to help her, like getting groceries or cleaning or just someone to talk to her. She has many
stories to tell as she has had a fulfilling life and was interested in contacting you to give a speech or something
on how much she appreciated the help. I did not know if you do anything like that. She really considered us a blessing
and even made us homemade cookies. I will definitely be doing this again next year.
Cindy
Scotts volunteers provide some tender loving care to outside of the new Loving Care
Hospice facility on London Avenue.
Just wanted to send a note of thanks to United Way. I appreciate what they
did for me. When you’re ill and unable to do certain chores, it’s really great when you have volunteers to do them
for me. Thank you so much. --- Peggy
We did it! Volunteers from Invensys Controls and Carriage Court show off their handiwork
in the newly painted living room of a happy Marysville resident.
(Left) Volunteers from Vineyard Church of Marysville spruce up the front yards of several
homes on E. 5th St.
(Right) Volunteers from Planck Brothers Painting, Memorial Hospital, and the
Vineyard Church of Marysville scraped and painted the front porch of the Houston House for the Marysville Art League
in a project that spanned two days.
(Left) Volunteers from Scotts pose for a team shot after working at the Union County
Humane Society.
The staff at the Union County Humane Society would like to sincerely thank
the United Way volunteers for all of their work on Community Care Day. This fabulous group spent the day attending
to our perennial garden that was in need of much work. They transformed it into a beautiful garden space! Thanks
again for volunteering your time with us.
Students with a Mission planted flowers at several locations throughout the City of
Marysville Parks system.
I want to send a thank you to the folks (from Memorial Hospital of Union
County) that came to the homeless shelter yesterday to assist with our much needed landscaping improvements. They
were there for at least six hours and worked at both facilities. They weeded, planted flowers, and put down mulch
at the men’s facility and planted about 13 trees at the family facility. We really appreciate the work that was
put into this project and obviously could not put in the 30 to 36 man hours the efforts required.
Mark Lovett, Director, Marion Shelter Program
Volunteers from Starbucks form an assembly line and stuff more than 90 care packages
for area troops stationed around the world for the Union County Military Family Support Group. United Way contributed
$1,100 to pay for the postage. Starbucks and the Military Family Support Group did the rest. The outreach to our
local troops occurred in conjunction with the Memorial Day holiday and would not have occurred without the Community
Care Day support.
Volunteers from Nationwide and Best Buy collected more items than were ever collected during the Community Care
Day pantry drive.
Items were sorted back at the Catholic Community Center by volunteers from Union County
Senior Services and Cannizzaro, Fraser, Bridges, Jillisky, & Streng and were distributed to the Marysville
Food Pantry, the North Union Personal Needs Pantry, the Plain City Food Pantry, the Richwood Emergency Assistance
Program, and the Union County Personal Needs Pantry.
A special thanks to the residents of Union County for their generosity on
that day too, with all the supplies we received for our Personal Needs Pantry. It was wonderful to receive such
generous donations. I really feel that our pantries are going to become more necessary than ever with all the increases
in the cost of living. I thank you for helping us continue the service we are providing in our community. Projects
that United Way organizes and completes help us carry out our mission statement as we have committed to Christ’s
purpose for us as He calls us to see our community with eyes of compassion and seek to meet the needs that God
has enabled us to meet because of His blessings upon us. Without United Way, it would be more difficult to carry
out this mission. Thank you SO much!
Jo Ann Stillings, North Union Personal Needs Pantry
(Left) A Scotts associate preps a lawn mower before cutting the grass in Magnetic Springs.
(Right) Union County Engineer’s Office employees spruced up a yard on 5th Street.
Scotts volunteers completed a massive landscaping project at the Richwood Civic Center,
sprucing up the facility’s outdoors for the summer season.
First of all, let me say “Thank you” Barb & Mike for inviting me to share
in this day. What a great experience it was.
I have done volunteer activities, but this by far was the most rewarding thing I have done. My favorite parts of
the day were working at Millie’s & the Schiederer’s. They were so very appreciative & knowing how much
they appreciated it made me feel so good. Volunteering pays big! I look forward to doing this again next year,
but will be wiser and take the day after off ;-)
Gail
Volunteers from the Union County Board of DD pose outside the Plain City Library, where
they did spring cleaning before heading off to other projects.
Volunteers from Invensys Controls build and paint new shelving units for the American
Red Cross.
Team Depot volunteers, the charitable arm of Home Depot, assemble new shelving units
for the North Union Personal Needs Pantry in Richwood.
Read about the impact this work had at the Pantry in the note below.
There are no words to express my thanks to United Way for the Community Care
Day project you granted to the North Union School District Personal Needs Pantry and Free Shop. You can see how
much nicer it is going to be as we prepare the orders requested by our clients each month. Thank you, thank you,
and thank you! Home Depot did a super job and the shelving and shoe racks are a great quality of material. The
shelving and shoe racks in the Free Shop rooms look great too, and will make shopping seem more “store like” than
before. Thank you, thank you, and thank you again!!
Jo Ann Stillings, North Union Personal Needs Pantry
Special thanks to the following for your support of manpower and materials:
Acloche
Active Air & Water Solutions
A.G.E. Graphics
Aldi
Alvis House
American Red Cross
Best Buy
Big Brothers Big Sisters
Big Lots
Cannizzaro Fraser Bridges Jillisky & Streng
Carriage Court
Champaign Bank
Child Care Network
City of Columbus Division of Fire
Clarity Technology Solutions
Coldwell Banker King Thompson
Columbus Builders Supply
Dave's Pharmacy
Delaware County Bank
East of Chicago Pizza
eMarysville.com
Gables at Green Pastures
Heritage Christian Church
Home Depot
Home Helpers
Honda of America, Mfg.
International Family Center
Invensys Controls
Jonathan Alder Junior High School
Kiwanis Club of Marysville
Kmart
Kroger
Liberty National Bank
Lovejoy’s Market
Mannasmith Funeral Home
Marysville Art League
McAulliffe's
Memorial Hospital of Union County
Mental Health America of Union County
MeterMall.com
Nationwide
North Union High School FFA
Ohio Reformatory for Women
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church
Parrott Implement
Planck Brothers Painting
Qwest
Rea & Associates, Inc.
Richwood Banking Company
Richwood Civic Center
Rotary Club of Union County
Scotts Miracle-Gro
Sherwin Williams
Shiloh Chapel
Siemens
Starbucks
Students with a Mission
Thomas & Marker Construction
UCATS
Union County ABLE
Union County BIA
Union County Board of DD
Union County DJFS
Union County Engineer's Office
Union County Family YMCA
Union County Military Family Support Group
Union County Retired Teachers Association
Union County Senior Services
Union County Sheriff's Office
Union Rural Electric
Veyance Technologies
Vineyard Church of Marysville
Vineyard Youth Group
Wal-Mart
West Central Correctional Facility
Wing Builders
Wings Enrichment Center
A special thanks to the Community Care Day planning committee
that spent more than six months coordinating this event and helping it to run so smoothly on Community Care Day
itself:
Susan Boomstra – Union County Senior Services
Dick Douglass – Union County Senior Services
Elisabeth Duesler – Cannizzaro Fraser Bridges Jillisky & Streng
Joyce Garrard – Union County Engineer’s Office
Liz Grisham – Union County Retired Teachers Association
Denise Grow – Memorial Hospital of Union County
Betty Hoile – Honda of America, Mfg.
Doug Hoy – Scotts Miracle-Gro
Paul Jaeb – Union Rural Electric
Jim McFarlane – MeterMall.com and Vineyard Church of Marysville
Sheriff Rocky Nelson – Union County Sheriff’s Office
Donnie Parrott – Parrott Implement
Joenee’ Purcell – Liberty National Bank
Len Swatkowski – Engineer
Shari Marsh - United Way of Union County
Dave Bezusko – United Way of Union Count
United Way of Union County, Inc. 232 N. Main St., Suite UW,
P.O. Box 145, Marysville, Ohio 43040-0145
Phone 937.644.8381 Fax: 937.644.2512 Toll-free 1.877.644.8381
