Day of Caring and Volunteering in Park City!

by Heather MacDonald
Volunteer and Community Engagement Director

This year’s Day of Caring projects in Park City brought together volunteers from CHG, JP Morgan Chase, and Fairchild Semiconductor to tutor kids, paint lines on the field for games, organize the school’s drama closet full of props and costumes, and plant trees.

“We could never have done all of this on our own! Look at how excited these kids are about their new playing fields!” – David Gomez, Principal, Parley’s Park Elementary School

“Participating in United Way Day of Caring is something I look forward to every year. I was asked to help the teacher in a 4th grade class at Jeremy Ranch Elementary. He had papers that needed to be corrected, and it really tested my “am I smarter than a 4th grader” skills. It was a pleasure to be in a classroom and it reminded me of how much is expected of teachers with the little time that they have. I was glad that I could help him get caught up on his paperwork so he could have more time interacting with the students. Thank you United Way for the opportunity and I look forward to participating again next year, whatever that task may be.” – Kathy Forney, Workstream Technical Support, Fairchild Semiconductor

One of the Day of Caring projects that was scheduled to be completed was the painting of a map of the United States on the playground at McPolin Elementary. Though the volunteers were ready to work, the weather just didn’t cooperate and the project had to be postponed because of the rain. Not wanting to disappoint the students and PTA who were planning on having the project completed, United Way staff and two volunteers from the community came together to make the map a reality.

We battled chilling and harsh winds to tape the stencils down, mark out the state lines, and then get all of the states painted. In a matter of hours, the playground was transformed into what can now be used as a learning tool for all the students at the school. It was a fun experience to be able to volunteer together since most of us were coordinating volunteer projects on Day of Caring.

We’re looking forward to continuing to support the Promise Park City schools on Day of Caring in 2014, but also by recruiting volunteers to help students with their reading skills throughout the school year. If volunteers are able to commit to reading with a student, twice a week for 30 minutes, it can make all the difference in the world. Visit uw.org/read for more details and get connected to the amazing kids in Park City!

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