United Way of Roanoke Valley (UWRV) held its annual Day of Action on Friday, June 21. This year’s Day of Action centered around a variety of service projects in the Southeast area of Roanoke and Vinton. More than 200 volunteers from 25 different local area companies took part, performing tasks such as painting a U.S. map and mulching at Herman L. Horn Elementary School, a Math and Science Fair at the 9th Street Boys and Girls Club, clean up in the Belmont neighborhood, unloading and sorting food at Christian Soldiers Food Pantry, working in the local Roanoke Community Gardens, painting and mulching at Stonewall Jackson Middle School and much more.
“It is so inspiring to see so many people coming together on one day to make a difference in the Roanoke area,” says Frank Rogan, president and CEO of UWRV. “We are very lucky to live in a place where so many people volunteer their time to make their own community a better place. This is truly Living United.”
In addition to the service projects, several local companies ran food drives in their offices in the weeks leading up to Day of Action. The food will be distributed to local area schools in the Roanoke Valley. Companies that contributed to the food drive include Friendship Retirement Community, The Roanoke Times, Cox, Cherry Bekaert, First Citizens Bank, Virginia Department of Health, Plastics One and United Way of Roanoke Valley.
After the workday, volunteers were invited to the Salvation Army location in Southeast Roanoke for lunch. Due to UWRV’s generous sponsors – Advance Auto Parts, Allstate and Kroger – UWRV was able to order more than 200 lunches from the LOA Let’s Do Lunch event, resulting in more than $3,000 going to the Meals on Wheels program.
The Day of Action 2013 event was possible due to the sponsorship donations from Kroger, Advance Auto Parts, Allstate and the Pioneers Volunteer Group, which provided all of the paint materials and guidance for the U.S. map project at Herman L. Horn Elementary School.
