Service with smiles rolls up sleeves on United Way Day of Action
Some of the hundreds of volunteers answering the call to the 33rd annual Day of Action organized by the United Way of Central Massachusetts, spent the morning outside, weeding roadside garden patches or clearing detritus from a summer of fun at the Greendale YMCA camp.
At Why Me & Sherry’s House on Pleasant Street in Worcester, 24 volunteers from Fallon Health and Rockland Trust Bank strung 1,000 origami cranes folded by Shrewsbury High School students earlier in the year and hung them from the ceiling in the children’s playroom.
“We’ve come to give back to the community,” said Cheryl Schmaltz of Hubbardston, a Fallon Health employee. “Supporting United Way Day of Action is very important to the company.”
United Way of Central Massachusetts posts a listing of available service projects during the weeks leading up to its Day of Action, which supports the National Day of Service and Remembrance held yearly on the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
Corporate and community groups, friends, neighbors and relatives review the lists and decide where to volunteer.
This year, the organization listed 50 projects benefiting 30 organizations across the region, from packing food baskets for veterans at New Hope to harvesting food at the community garden in North Grafton and even beautifying the grounds in front of the organization’s headquarters on Chestnut Street, said Idaliana Medina, director of community engagement.
Organizers estimate 600 people volunteered to work at the different sites located in six Worcester County municipalities.
Why Me & Sherry’s House offers wraparound services to the families of children who have been diagnosed with cancer.
The modern eight-bedroom home, built specifically for the organization 20 years earlier, offers a gathering place for families, support services, peer groups and even short- and long-term residential options for those who travel from far away to access treatment in either Worcester or Boston.
“A childhood cancer diagnosis displaces a family for about three years,” said Robyn Fair, director of marketing and development at Why Me & Sherry’s House. The organization, founded in 1985, offers a full range of services including peer support and family fun days. Workers even take coffee and doughnuts to hospitals on treatment days for the families of children undergoing treatment.
The organization maintains contact with families even after their situation has resolved, regardless of the outcome. Its motto is “Once a family, always a family,” Fair said, pointing out that 90% of children who survive a childhood cancer suffer from lifelong medical issues.
Tim Dooley of Worcester, a Rockland Trust employee, spent the morning perched on a ladder, pinning the delicate strings of cranes to the walls of the playroom, a cheery place stocked with play kitchens, a huge dollhouse, blocks, dolls and other toys.
“Cancer affects us all, even me in my life,” Dooley said. “This is an excellent cause. I wanted to help.”
Melissa Randall of Uxbridge, a Fallon Health worker, braved her fear of heights to climb up another ladder and help Dooley pin the birds along the wall.
“I’m channeling the children and their energy and their bravery,” Randall said. Fallon Health workers are offered a service day with pay to give back to their communities, as do many American corporate and nonprofit organizations.
The volunteers at the craft table chatted as they worked, getting to know each other. Mostly women, they poked large needles and silvered thread through the folded paper, sewing a nonet of colorful birds onto the string to form a garland. Many of them said they had been touched by the Japanese legend that the folding of 1,000 cranes will grant a wish.
“We picked this project because we thought it would be fun,” Schmaltz said, admitting that it was a tad more meticulous than they had expected. “We love the house and the healing room.”
