CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Hundreds of volunteers lent a hand to non-profit agencies Wednesday. It was the United Way’s Day of Caring.
The United Way of Central West Virginia sponsored events in Boone, Clay, Kanawha, Logan and Putnam counties. One of the sites was the Sojourners Shelter for Homeless Women and Families on Charleston’s East End. A group of volunteers from Columbia Pipeline Group painted walls, halls and a fence.
Margaret Taylor is the director of the YWCA Sojourners Shelter.
“Each time they come in they do a project and it really looks good. It freshens up the place. It gives you a new lease on life when you walk into the facility,” stressed Taylor. “Once it was dull and now it’s back to life.”
Children staying at the shelter kept running to the door of their playroom to see how volunteers were coming along with the painting. The walls went from a boring blue to a sky colored, cheery space.
“They seem so excited to have their playroom painted. It makes you feel good! I really enjoy it,” explained Amanda Boyko with Columbia.
This wasn’t her first Day of Caring. Last year she volunteered at the Kanawha-Charleston Animal Shelter.
Taylor said without volunteers like Boyko, projects like the playroom at the shelter just wouldn’t get done.
“We don’t have the manpower to do these things or to get these things done. We’re too busy working with the participants as they come through our facility.”
Taylor is hopeful, the volunteers will be inspired to come back again before next year’s Day of Caring.
Other volunteers across the five-county area pulled weeds, cleaned up trash, planted flowers and helped in any way they could.