Volunteers needed for Serve Jeff City and Mission JC

Mark April 22 and April 30 on the calendar as beautification days for Jefferson City, as two programs enlist volunteers to make the community shine.

Serve Jeff City and Mission JC are looking for volunteers for their annual individual and group service projects.

Serve Jeff City, a volunteer-based initiative spearheaded by the United Way, will have projects available for up to 400 people to get involved in April 22. In its sixth year, the communitywide day of service started in 2012 as a partnership between the United Way, Jefferson City Parks and Recreation and the Jefferson City Area YMCA.

The Saturday event will feature a variety of landscaping and park clean-up projects. Other projects include cleaning up Wears Creek, picking up trash in downtown Jefferson City, cleaning sheds and other facilities at Jefferson City Day Care, working at the Salvation Army or Special Learning Center, and helping to clean medical equipment at Homemaker Health Care.

"We know this is around the time people do their spring cleaning, and we want to help make Jefferson City shine," said Sarah Schatsiek, administrative assistant at United Way.

Serve Jeff City is an opportunity for United Way agencies as well as groups not affiliated with the organization to enlist volunteers to help with various needs.

"We welcome all age groups and people of all abilities," Schatsiek said. "This is a great time for the community to come together, see what agencies do behind the scenes and work together on various projects."

Volunteers who sign up online at servejeffcity.org by April 8 will be guaranteed a T-shirt.

The event will kick off at 8 a.m. in McClung Park, where state Sen. Mike Kehoe and friends will serve pancakes and sausage. Kehoe has partnered with Serve Jeff City for the past five years.

"It's inspiring when you see 300-plus people show up early in the morning to do volunteer work," Kehoe said. "It's an investment in the community for sweat equity, and just another example of how we do things in our community."

The following weekend, the fifth annual Mission JC program hopes for roughly 600 volunteers participating in community projects on April 30.

Termed "a morning of worship through service," seven local churches are participating this year, but participants do not have to be members of the churches to join. Registration begins April 1 online at missionjc.org or by calling 573-634-3603 by April 21.

Participating churches include Community Christian Church, Familia Cristiana Internacional, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, Memorial Baptist Church and Southridge Baptist Church.

The event will begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Capital Mall Center Court, where breakfast, water and T-shirts will be available for volunteers while supplies last.

Mission JC's variety of projects include baking and delivering cookies to staff at Capital Region and St. Mary's hospitals, preparing and serving lunch at the Salvation Army, planting seeds for the NEEED Project's garden and cleaning at Jefferson City Animal Shelter, as well as performing various tasks at Common Ground, HALO, Healing House, the Samaritan Center, the Pregnancy Help Center, and the Rape and Abuse Crisis Service.

Projects should be finished by noon.