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  • Can you dig it? Kelli LeMaster, human resources manager at Mosaic, helps clear an area for a patio with fellow volunteer Daniel Morgan as part of the United Way Day of Action on Friday at the United Cerebral Palsy office on Poplar Street. Tribune-Star/ Joseph C. Garza

    MET 061512 UNITED LEMASTER.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Uplifting example: Indiana State University President Dan Bradley takes a box of books from fellow volunteer Trevor Mullikan as they help clear out a garage at Happiness Bag Friday for the United Way Day of Action.

    MET 061512 UNITED BRADLEY.jpg

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June 16, 2012

Action becomes heavy, hot work for many volunteers in annual United Way event

Howard Greninger The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — About 350 volunteers worked at 29 Wabash Valley locations as part of the United Way’s Day of Action on Friday.

“This was the largest turnout of volunteers we have had in a number of years and the most projects we have had in a number of years,” said Troy Fears, executive director of the United Way of the Wabash Valley. “It is a great way for volunteers to give back to the community,” he said.

Jodi A. Moan, executive director of Happiness Bag Inc., located near the Vigo County Fairgrounds, used volunteers to clean out the agency’s big double-door garage, called the “barn on the mountain.”

“We have a lot of supplies that we have acquired that we need to give some organization and a little more order to,” Moan said. “But it is a task that one or two of us just can’t seem to accomplish. There are some things, such as crafts, that are beneficial to our folks to utilize but we just can’t find.”

The garage also contained many boxes of books, which Moan said she planned to take to Indiana State University’s recycling center for use in a “books of the world” program that sends used books worldwide.

ISU President Daniel J. Bradley and Nancy Rogers, ISU associate vice president for community engagement and experiential learning, were among volunteers working in the “barn.”

“This is part of ISU’s idea of engagement with the community and this is an opportunity for me to do that as well,” said Bradley, who said he was hoping he would not have to paint as part of his inaugural assignment as a United Way Day of Action volunteer.

“Being in a ‘barn’ is not so bad. There have never been any cows in that barn, so I don’t have to worry about where I am going to step,” Bradley joked as he prepared to work.

Rogers has participated in several action days, but this year was her first working at Happiness Bag. “Obviously the volunteer work is important to the agencies, I think, as lots of times they have projects that are too big to get done with staff who have other obligations. This day of action is important to raise awareness of what the United Way agencies and other nonprofit agencies do in the community,” she said.

Three staff workers and three clients at Mosaic, a disabilities services agency, worked to remove about six inches of soil for a new paving-stone picnic area for tenants of United Cerebral Palsy’s facility along Poplar Street in Terre Haute.

Dave Meadows, associate director at Mosaic, used a pick to break up ground, while others used shovels to scoop loosened soil into a wheelbarrow.

“We feel like this is a really good way for us to give back,” Meadows said, who added the ground was “stubborn” because it is dry. “It is not too bad once you get down a little,” he said Friday.

About 13 volunteers from Kellogg Inc. in Seelyville volunteered to paint the front lobby and public area of the Terre Haute Humane Society’s building along Fruitridge Avenue in Terre Haute.

“We did not have the manpower to set aside a whole morning to do this,” said Maggie Wheeler, outreach and education coordinate for the Humane Society. “Plus, Sherwin-Williams donated all the paint. The money we would have spent on paint needs to go toward these animals” at the shelter, she said.

“This will brighten the front up and make it look cleaner, more up to date and just more welcoming,” Wheeler said.

Mildred Grimsley, plant manager for Kellogg, said the company volunteers “as a group, are partial to helping out with the animals. Last year we helped out at a park and this year wanted to do something different.

“It is important that we give back to the community in which we work,” Grimsley said. “We donate our time and other things throughout the year.”

At Dobbs Park, on Terre Haute’s eastside, Kia Head and Gayla Sutherlin, managers at separate Casey’s General Stores in Brazil, worked to remove trash from the park.

“We have collected cans, wrappers, and I don’t think I have seen so many Walmart bags in my live,” Sutherlin said.

“We also collected a lot of [punctured] balloons,” Head added, and a lot of cigarette butts. “For the most part, it is a pretty clean park,” Head said.

The two walked around the park’s lake, through a playground area and among shelters. If time permitted, the two volunteers had hoped to pick up trash along trails in the park.

Other Casey’s volunteers pulled weeds or helped move and spread gravel at the park.

Volunteers began at 8:30 a.m. and worked until 12:30 p.m. Friday. The program began in Terre Haute in 1997, first listed as a “Day of Caring,” but was changed about five years ago to be known as Day of Action, according to the United Way of the Wabash Valley.

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.

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