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Article Courtesy of Santa
Barbara News Press
All in a day's work
Requests for volunteers up for 18th annual Day of Caring
KARNA HUGHES, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
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| Westmont College students volunteer at Dos Pueblos High School during
the 2008 Day of Caring. This year's event, sponsored by the United Way,
has a special focus on youth volunteering.
COURTESY PHOTO |
September 9, 2009 7:24 AM
More than 1,000 local volunteers are expected to turn out Sept. 19 for
the Day of Caring, sponsored by the United Way of Santa Barbara County.
The annual event is the biggest, single-day volunteer effort in the
Santa Barbara-Ventura-San Luis Obispo counties area, according to event
organizers.
It will kick off with a volunteer breakfast, including brief opening
remarks and a performance by a marching band and cheerleaders, at 8 a.m.
at the Page Youth Center, 4540 Hollister Ave., in Goleta.
Then volunteers of all ages will fan out to more than 50 work sites from
Carpinteria to Santa Ynez from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., lending their talents
and elbow grease to projects at nonprofits, schools and other community
groups.
Those few hours of effort have big results, according to Paul Didier,
United Way of Santa Barbara County's president and CEO.
"We've measured $150,000 to $200,000 worth of impact every year ... for
the last seven to eight years," he said.
Projects range from assembling care packages for patients through the
Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation and doing habitat restoration for the Santa
Barbara Audubon Society to doing cleanups and landscape maintenance for
Santa Ynez Valley People Helping People.
Requests for Day of Caring volunteers are up this year, with about 1,150
requests in 2009 to date, compared to 900 requests in 2008, according to
the United Way. Representatives attribute the increase to the effects of
the economic recession.
"Let's face it. Nonprofits in a good year typically don't have a lot of
money for deferred maintenance projects" and other needed improvements,
said Mr. Didier.
"In a recession, they have even less money. So they keep putting off and
putting off projects."
And while many of the same nonprofits seek assistance during the Day of
Caring each year, about 25 percent of the charities are new.
Now in its 18th year, the event started out as a way to signal the start
of the United Way's annual community fundraising campaign.
"Gosh, I don't think we even had 50 people in the parking lot at the Y
in Santa Barbara (the first year)," Mr. Didier recalled. "We had maybe
three or four work sites at that time."
Since then, the event has grown substantially, with up to 1,200
volunteers at more than 50 sites each year.
"It's turned out to be quite an exciting, wonderful reaffirmation of the
spirit of volunteerism in Santa Barbara," Mr. Didier said.
This year, United Way is reaching out especially to youth volunteers
and trying to increase their numbers. About 200 people younger than 18
typically participate in the event, but many of them come with their
parents.
The group is trying "to find ways to engage young people, especially
teenagers, so that they can not just know about community service from
the graduation requirement but look at it as a class-building or
team-building kind of concept," said Mr. Didier.
It's also a chance for teens to develop leadership skills, lend a hand
in helping their neighbors and learn more about their community.
Students from Dons Net Cafè at Santa Barbara High School and Westmont
College will be pitching in on projects ranging from planting gardens,
decorating playgrounds with stencils, assembling learning kits for pre-schoolers
and more.
Businesses, church groups, neighborhood groups, families and other teams
often return to volunteer at Day of Caring year after year.
Some have "adopted" nonprofits, which they dedicate themselves to each
year, while others choose to spread their efforts around, learning about
different groups in the area.
"It's an educational day for people; it's a work day and it's a bonding
kind of day," Mr. Didier said. "Everybody has a good time. There's a lot
of laughter, a lot of music, but people work hard and meet others."
The deadline for volunteer sign-ups is Friday, but walk-ins are welcome.
To learn about volunteer opportunities or to sign up, call Juli Askew of
the United Way at 965-8594, e-mail dayofcaring@unitedwaysb.org or go to
www.VolunteerSBC.org.
e-mail: khughes@newspress.com
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