Day of Caring

Yesterday, as a VISTA working with United Way of Utah County, I got the opportunity to participate in one of their huge service projects called Day of Caring. More than a thousand volunteers participated to improve their community. It was amazing to me how much work went into a huge project like this, it was fun, exciting and even stressful at times (and I had no real assignments)
I was assigned to the Mountainlands Head Start location in Pleasant Grove. I had a great group that were excited to help out and make a difference in the community. The volunteers did everything from weeding and cleaning playground equipment to coloring educational kits. Armed with hoses, volunteers even sprayed down the building and climbed all over the roof sweeping off the leaves and debri, just to make the building look as clean as possible for the first day of school next week. Even though I didn't do much work myself, my experience was so rewarding. I loved seeing the volunteers taking initiative and making a project their own. I loved seeing the improvement to the building and the grounds afterwards, but my favorite part of all was seeing the gratitude of the director of the Head Start. Seeing that we really had helped her that day, something that she didn't know how she would accomplish on her own, was surprisingly moving. I hope that the volunteers had as good of an experience as I did, and I hope that they realized that they really did a service that day that was greatly appreciated and won't be forgotten soon.