A small army of volunteers are taking to the streets of Jefferson City to care for children, feed the hungry, repair playgrounds and bake cookies.
Approximately 287 United Way volunteers are completing odd jobs for the 16 partner agencies for two days during the Days of Caring event. These groups from local government and businesses are getting an inside look at all the ways the United Way helps the community as well as hands-on experience with what these partner agencies deal with daily.
"It is crazy," said Jennifer Davis, United Way volunteer and mother of four who was providing assistance at the Jefferson City Day Care Center. "Of course, day cares are crazy. Anytime you get a bunch of kids together, it is going to be chaos. It takes a very, very strong person to be a daycare worker."
Davis was surrounded by 2-year-olds who were running, screaming, laughing and crying in what she called organized chaos thanks to the daycare workers. She also said she wished her own children minded as well as the kids at the center.
"They do a lot of things here at the daycare center," said Donna Scheidt, the center's executive director. "This morning, they are volunteering with playing with the children, they are helping the teachers, they are giving the children a little extra attention, which they need. And this afternoon, they are going to put a roof on our sand box, they are going to put some new window screens up for us. They are going to sterilize toys, bake cookies and do all the kinds of activities that have to go on during nap time."
A few blocks away, the United Way volunteers teamed up with students from the Lewis and Clark Middle School at the Food Bank for Central and
Northeast Missouri. Students and adults alike cleaned the food bank's warehouse, packed satchels with food for the Buddy Packs program and did whatever else they could do to get the food bank ready for the new school year.
"This is kind of a great moment to embody what the food bank tries to do with the United Way," said Michael Yetman, special projects coordinator for the food bank. "It is all about the community helping themselves, so this is a great example. And the fact that we got kids in here volunteering really makes things a lot better."
The 14 students were a few chosen from many who volunteered to come to the center, said Sherri Thomas, principal. She said her students were excited about getting to work with the United Way.
"I think it is kind of fun," said Georgia Hatfield, a 13-year-old seventh grader with braces and dreams of singing at Juilliard. "Because it is not like we are at school where we are just sitting in chairs and doing stuff. And this way, we are helping people and getting to talk and chat with each other."
Meanwhile at the Salvation Army, a group of volunteers were preparing soup, sandwiches and chocolate muffins for the hungry residents of the homeless shelter. Others helped clean the kitchen and children's toys.
"They were excellent," said Christopher White, the lieutenant for the Salvation Army in Jefferson City. "They are doing all the stuff that we would love to do ourselves, but we just don't have the manpower. And they have great attitudes."
His wife, Rachel, who also runs the operation, had similar sentiments.
"I think we had six people here yesterday," she said. "They were really hard workers. They took everything out of the kitchen, cleaned it and then reorganized it. We had one lady who stayed an extra hour to finish sweeping and mopping."
Across town at the Special Learning Center, around 30 volunteers had gathered to place safety tiles on the playground, repair tables, assemble furniture, paint, change light bulbs and do some much needed maintenance to the ball pit, which one volunteer described as a "learning experience."
The workers for the center said that because of the extra helping hands they were able to complete a lot of projects that they normally would not have been able to do.