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Thank you to everyone who participated in the 23rd Annual United Way Day of Caring! If you missed the event or are eager to know what your impact was, here’s what happened:

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  • Over 4,500 volunteers, representing 120 local companies, completed 110 one-day service projects. Together, they completed nearly 18,000 hours of volunteer service. Volunteers hosted career fairs for school kids, read in classrooms, landscaped, painted, and worked on other community enhancement projects.
  • More than 25 projects took place in community school and neighborhood locations. These locations support United Way’s work to transform lives and communities. For more information about where United Way of Salt Lake works and how you can get involved, visit uw.org!
  • All of the volunteer service completed on Day of Caring saved our community more than $643,000! The work completed not only helped improve individual lives, but also helped build a stronger community for all of us.
  • Volunteers also supported kids with Stuff the Bus! Nearly 80 companies, community groups, and individuals collected new schools supplies for 8,000 students! Dozens of volunteers counted and sorted all of the donations. Then, on Day of Caring, more than 100 volunteers stuffed these supplies into backpacks, which were delivered to community schools and neighborhood locations.

On Day of Caring, fun projects happened all around the valley. For example:

125 American Express volunteers worked along the Jordan River Parkway creating a safe environment for individuals and families to enjoy by pulling weeds, planting native seeds, and removing garbage. An additional 500 American Express volunteers put together teacher appreciation packets for hard working educators.

Day of Caring American ExpressCHG Healthcare’s 60 volunteers teamed up with Kearns Jr. High Community School to beautify the courtyards space and install new garden beds. In addition, volunteers also mentored and tutored students in reading and math.

Day of Caring CHGRegence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah volunteers helped provide vision screenings for 750 students at Granger Elementary. With an enrolment of 970 students, the vision screenings took the school nurse 5 months to complete last year. Because of the Regence volunteers 5 months’ worth of work was completed in 4 hours. Now students who failed their initial vision screenings will continue to work with the school nurse to determine their needs to get glasses.

Day of Caring RegenceAnd remember, our community needs volunteers much more than just one day a year. There are hundreds of ongoing volunteer opportunities for families, kids, and adults to connect to through United Way of Salt Lake’s Volunteer Center.

Also, you can still participate in Day of Caring by texting StufftheBus (one word) to 91999 and make a donation! Your donation helps provide school supplies to at-risk kids here in our community.

Stuff the Bus 2015Lastly, a big thank you goes out to the companies that sponsored United Way Day of Caring this year:

  • American Express
  • CHASE
  • CHG Healthcare Services
  • The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation | KSL
  • Hexcel Corporation
  • Orbital ATK
  • Questar
  • Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah
  • Wells Fargo

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS FROM DAY OF CARING 2015!!