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United Way Day of Caring rallies volunteers for Longmont nonprofits

Communitywide day of volunteering allowed people to connect virtually and in person.
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Dietra Porter (left) and Stephanie McKay put together a tricycle at the TLC Learning Center during Mile High United Way's Day of Caring on Friday. Both are members of the Twin Peaks Rotary Club. (Photo by Monte Whaley)

Dietra Porter and Stephanie McKay sat next to a pile of tools Friday at Longmont TLC Learning Center and pieced together a new chopper-style tricycle popular with the grade school crowd.

Porter and McKay, both members of Longmont’s Twin Peaks Rotary Club, said they look forward to doing work for the Learning Center. 

“We come here to help out each year,” McKay said. “You get a good feeling doing something for them.”

Porter and McKay were among 500 volunteers who fanned out Friday as part of the Mile High United Way’s Day of Caring. The annual event draws people from different organizations who devote their time and energy to help nonprofit groups in Boulder and Broomfield counties and Denver. On Friday, they pitched in on 35 projects supporting 22 nonprofits, according to Shelby Morse, spokeswoman for Mile High United Way.

COVID-19 put a damper on the size of the event this year, Morse said, and some of the volunteering was done virtually.

But in-person work went off as usual in Longmont, including gardening and repairs at TLC Learning Center, which provides preschool and toddler care.

As many as 15 volunteers pushed wheelbarrows and shovels to get rid of mulch and other debris to prepare for new playground equipment at the facility, which has been in the city since 1956.

Mile High United Way and Rotary Club volunteers also toiled on an infant and toddler playground and cleaned and trimmed the learning center’s sensory garden. 

“This is such a huge help to us,” said Matt Eldred, learning center executive director. “This saves us on labor costs and gets us acquainted with members of the community. This day means so much to us.”

2020_08_28_day_of_caring_tlc_learning_center2Matt Eldred, executive director of TLC Learning Center, stands on a playground on which volunteers worked during Mile High United Way's Day of Caring on Friday. (Photo by Monte Whaley)

Elsewhere in Longmont, a team from US Bank worked with Habitat for Humanity of the St. Vrain Valley, at its two-home project on Marshall Place.

There were five volunteers for US Bank and three Center for Organ Recovery & Education volunteers at the Marshall Place site on Friday, said Nikki Watt, St. Vrain Habitat volunteer services associate.

The Marshall Place site includes two homes — one is a single-story with three bedrooms. The father of the family that will own the home was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and the home was built to meet American with Disabilities Act requirements if he were to become wheelchair bound, Watt said via email. 

The second home is a two-story, two-bedroom structure and the occupants will be a grandmother and her two grandchildren. 

The work done on Friday will ensure "these homeowners will be able to age in place comfortably," Watt said.

Volunteers also helped Longs Peak Council, Boy Scouts of America with building and roof repairs and fence construction at Camp Patiya, a 30-acre camping and day use facility 7 miles west of Boulder.

The Wild Plum Center, an organization dedicated to providing early childhood education and developmental services in Longmont for more than 50 years, partnered with United Way for support with fundraising events.

“The (Birds and Bloom fundraising) event was supposed to happen on April 25. We were a month out of that and then COVID happened. Now what we are doing is holding onto all of the birdhouses to sell next year,” said Keri Davis, community partnership director at Wild Plum Center.

Day of Caring allowed an opportunity for volunteers to come together from early July through the end of August and build or paint 100 birdhouses for the cause, Davis said.

“Boy Scouts also built us birdhouses as well as other folks, like a group of ladies who instead of having birthday parties, they did birdhouse painting parties,” Davis said. “Also a group of girls, teenagers, 13-year-olds, who did it for fun. It has been a nice way for people to take your mind off things and build birdhouses. This was a good way to get folks involved virtually. We didn’t have an in person thing so it was a nice way to get something together virtually.”

Wild Plum Center plans to have its next annual fundraiser in spring, where the birdhouses will be available for the community to see and buy.

Volunteers who participated in the simultaneous community service on Friday were able to pick up T-shirts at Scrumptious ice cream on Main Street, Morse said in an email. Volunteers also were asked to bring canned food or travel-size hygiene items when they picked up their shirts, with the donations set to go to Day of Caring nonprofit partners, Morse said.