More than 100 community volunteers from 18 companies and organizations came together to complete 16 service projects for the United Way of Hall County's second annual Week of Caring.
Throughout the week of Sept. 16 to Sept. 24, these volunteers completed in-person projects at local nonprofits such as serving lunch at Good News at Noon, packing food boxes at Georgia Mountain Food Bank and cleaning classrooms at Sisu Integrated Learning.
Meghan Mitchell, director of Resource Development for United Way, said the numbers for this year's Week of Caring are comparable to last year. But unlike last year, many volunteers were able to work on projects in-person.
"I think we were able to do more actually out in the community and hands-on this year, which is really great to see," said Mitchell.
In addition to the physical service projects, many volunteers packed hygiene kits and snack bags to be distributed among some of the nonprofits.
"We were able to provide over 270 of those hygiene kits and snack bags to local nonprofits, as well," said Mitchell.
Organizations and companies that participated in this year's Week of Caring included:
- Lambda Iota Omega Chapter of AKA
- Aim To Be3
- Leadership Hall
- Brenau
- Jacobs Media
- Gainesville City Schools
- United Community Bank
- Truist
- Jackson EMC
- Hall County Schools
- A Good Look Home Inspection
- BatesCarter
- Forum Communications
- Full Media, LLC
- Gainesville City Schools
- UGA Hall County Expanded Food And Nutrition Education Program
Some projects that were completed include:
- Packing Food Boxes at Georgia Mountain Food Bank
- Planting flower pots at United Way of Hall County
- Meals on Wheels Delivery Routes
- Painting at Salvation Army
- Serving lunch at Good News at Noon with St. Vincent de Paul
- Cleaning classrooms at Sisu
- Maintenance and landscaping at Sisu
- Painting sidewalks at Sisu
- Pressure washing at Hall-Dawson CASA
- Packing food boxes at Good Samaritan Ministries
- Packing over 160 hygiene kits for Gainesville Housing Authority
- Packing over 150 snack bags for Good News Clinics
- Book Drive for Little Libraries
The Week of Caring is intended to encourage volunteerism in the community throughout the year. It also serves as a kickoff to United Way's annual campaign.
Mitchell said many in-person events and fundraisers for the annual campaign are dependent on the number of COVID-19 cases in the community. She mentioned that the nonprofit hopes to host a 5k race in spring of next year.
