Voluntary Yard Work United Way’s Day Of Caring Attracts Volunteers From Area Businesses
Nicholas Stejer, 8, drew quietly in the cool shade cast by a tree in front of the Children’s Home Society of Washington.
His brother, Stuart, lurked mischievously close to the tree. A garden hose was in the 6-year-old boy’s hands.
“Mom!” Nicholas yelled as Stuart sprayed water through the shade. “He got my drawings all wet and now they’re ruined.”
Their mother, Sue, was among the 22 volunteers from Kaiser Aluminum who traded their desks and hard hats Friday for a day to do yard work at the Children’s Home Society on the corner of 44th and Scott.
In all, more than 200 volunteers from 17 area businesses spent their work day doing community service projects for the United Way’s 1995 Day of Caring. The Day of Caring - actually two days - continues today.
“I dread doing this at home,” Stejer said, surveying the yard work that was going on around her. “I can’t believe I volunteered to do somebody else’s.”
She spent her morning cutting sod, pruning bushes and pulling weeds with her boys in tow. Nicholas and Stuart turned down a day of YMCA summer camp to help Mom pull weeds.
Across the yard, Kaiser employee Sonny Etheredge and others packed dirt in a large hole where a small, decaying shed used to stand. Dirt soiled Etheredge’s blue jeans and white T-shirt and smudged his sweaty face.
“I’m not afraid to get dirty,” said Etheredge. “It all comes off.”
Moments later, Dave Winebarger began filling the hole with a front-end loader. Winebarger, who works at the Trentwood plant, drew the assignment because he occasionally operates a similar tractor at work.
“It’s kind of fun,” Winebarger said. “It’s different. It gets you out of the shop for a while.”
Workers from both the Mead and Trentwood Kaiser plants got an early start to the sunny day. The volunteers began raking, shoveling and trimming at 6 a.m.
What Kaiser volunteers didn’t finish Friday, 11 employees from Washington Mutual will finish today.
Other than the weekly lawn mowing and occasional water sprinkled on the lawn, little work usually gets done outside of the offices in the brick building, said Wayne Rounseville, regional vice president for the Children’s Home Society of Washington.
“We got work done that would have cost us several thousand dollars for the price of lunch,” Rounseville said. “It’s kind of how you have to think in a non-profit. There’s not money to do things, but there are people willing to come in and do things like this. It’s great.”
Across town, three employees from the Office of Former Speaker Tom Foley sorted food for the Salvation Army’s food service.
“It’s different when you come out and participate and see what a service provides for the community,” Janet Gilpatrick said. “It has a much bigger impact.”
Gilpatrick and her colleagues relieved five state Attorney General’s Office employees who boxed food in the morning. Deloris Walker, of the Salvation Army, was more than happy to put her volunteers to work.
“There’s been times in the past when I was here alone and we’d run out of boxes because as fast as I could build them, we were giving them out,” Walker said.
The efforts of the Kaiser employees were equally appreciated by Rounseville.
“Begging goes with the job description,” he said. “We ask people for money, we ask them to help us out. It’s how to do more with less.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo