Editorial: Day of Caring and kudos

Published 12:00 am Thursday, September 15, 2011

Some 650 Rowan residents may be moving more slowly today after volunteering for the United Way Day of Caring on Thursday. They hammered and hauled, shoveled and scraped, planted and persevered to make Rowan County a better place, and today their backs might be feeling the effects. But soreness is temporary; the improvements they made at dozens of schools and other sites Thursday will last much longer.
Thousands of people are required to make all this happen, and they deserve a round of thanks.
Kudos to the volunteers who started planning this event months in advance to find out which improvements were needed and then lined up the supplies and people to get the job done. Touching up the landscaping around schools is always a frequent request, though volunteers often tackle more complicated projects, some at agencies in addition to campuses.
Kudos to the companies who let their employees take a break from regular work duties to help with the Day of Caring. This is not a small thing. Virtually every business has streamlined and needs all hands on deck. Still, dozens of companies made an exception for this special event. If all 650 volunteers put in a full day, thatís 5,200 hours of labor carried out in an atmosphere of camaraderie and service ó priceless.
Kudos to the people who provided fuel for the day: food. Some donated it; others prepared it . We wonít list names for fear of leaving someone out. The day starts with enough pancakes, sausage, bacon, cinnamon rolls, juice and coffee to serve several hundred people. On the work sites, workers enjoyed snacks and bagged lunches.
And kudos, of course, to the workers ó the ones who went out to the Day of Caring sites and the ones who took up the slack for them back on the job. Because of their willingness to chip in, 50 schools and nonprofits saw projects tackled and completed on their grounds Thursday. Thatís a great show of community spirit ó by, for and about the United Way.