Week of Caring service is United Way tradition
SLIPPERY ROCK — Frost was still on the ground Friday morning when employees of Calumet Penreco broke out the shovels and began moving a mountain of mulch up the hill to the playground at Slippery Rock Area Parks & Recreation's facility on North Main Street.
Steve Powers, who was in charge of the Penreco group Friday, said employees from the company have been volunteering with the United Way's Week of Caring effort for at least 20 years — before it was even called Week of Caring.
During the years, the company has worked on projects across Butler County. This year, a group of about 10 people visited the recreation facility in Slippery Rock, where they spread mulch in the playground area and did other landscaping work. Earlier in the week, a new infant-parent swing set was installed.
“It's fun. We put a lot into it,” Powers said. “This is just part of it. We do it every year because we get to give back.”
For some employees at the company, it's a chance to give back to a community they know well.
Jenna McCorry, who works in product support and chemistry at Penreco, said she grew up in Slippery Rock and spent summers watching her two brothers play youth baseball games at a field just up the hill from where she was helping to spread mulch on Friday.
“I've been here a lot over the years, and this — it's just a sense of accomplishment to help out,” McCorry said.
Penreco employee Ryan Campbell was also toting a shovel Friday morning. Campbell and his wife, Abi, recently moved to Slippery Rock with their two daughters, 5-year-old Aralyn and 2-year-old River. Campbell said the family regularly spends time in the park, and he jumped at the chance to help keep it safe and beautiful for other families in the community.
“Community involvement gives you a sense of helping others,” Campbell said. “And right now we're helping to keep them (the kids) safe.”
The annual community projects are so entrenched at the company that even retired Penreco workers, like Vic Rozic of West Sunbury, come out to lend a hand. Rozic has been retired for two years now but still wouldn't miss the chance to pitch in during Week of Caring.
“For me anymore it's not a day out of the office. It's just a nice thing to do,” he said.
The Slippery Rock park project Friday was just one of 12 project sites where more than 163 volunteers from 15 organizations volunteered this year.
At Lifesteps in Butler, volunteers from Baglier Buick worked to create a safe and beautiful outside environment for the children, adults and families the organization serves, said Karen Sue Owens, Lifesteps' president and CEO. She thanked the company for its “great staff,” and the help provided this week.
“Volunteerism is critical to the community and to Lifesteps ... not only during the Day of Caring, but throughout the year,” Owens said. “We value volunteer service and are truly grateful for their support.”
The work included mainstays like upkeep at Preston Park, which drew more than 40 volunteers throughout the week, as well as new additions like cleaning and landscaping at the Butler County Humane Society, which Lisa Leonhard, the United Way's director of volunteer services, said proved to be an especially popular project with volunteers.She said the Week of Caring continues to be a vital outlet for nonprofit organizations that might otherwise struggle to complete maintenance projects and other work — from painting at Glade Run to inventorying collections at Butler Public Library — that takes large amounts of time and manpower to accomplish.“You have all these groups that have all these projects and, especially the bigger ones, can be difficult to find the time and people,” she said. “This brings people out every year and gets them interacting with the agencies.”With fewer volunteers than in years past, Leonhard said, there were a few projects that didn't get attention during the week.“That's always disappointing to us, when we can't fill a need,” Leonhard said. “We want everyone to get some volunteers and every project to be filled.”
