United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona Needs Volunteers for Days of Caring
United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona is now inviting individuals throughout the community to register as volunteers for this year’s 23rd Annual Days of Caring event.
On Oct. 21 and 22, the two-day initiative is expected to pair more than 100 local projects with thousands of caring volunteers to improve the Southern Arizona community one project at a time.
Last year, more than 2,500 volunteers turned out to complete 113 projects, putting in 7,600 volunteer hours. In addition, and due to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, virtual projects were encouraged and included, and dozens of virtual projects were conducted during the event.
This year, volunteers can register from Sept. 1 through Oct. 17. To demonstrate the many and different projects this year, and by way of example, Community Gardens of Tucson is hosting a variety of revitalizations of their community gardens around town, where volunteers will be working outdoors to help weed, spread mulch, organize tools, and build raised garden beds, all while learning about the importance of our community gardens. In another area of need, Mentoring Tucson’s Kids is hosting a food drive of nonperishable Thanksgiving food items to build baskets that will be handed out to families in need at the beginning of November.
Volunteers will be putting these baskets together all while learning about the needs of our youth in Pima County. And finally, the Humane Society of Southern Arizona has a range of projects to choose from this year, including reading to shelter pets to help them calm down and become comfortable with humans, creating enrichment play mats for them, and helping to sort donations at their thrift store.
This year’s Gold Sponsor is Texas Instruments; Copper Sponsors include Rick Engineering, Bayer, the Arizona Daily Star, and This Is Tucson.
“We are very grateful to all of the volunteers who serve in our community and especially through our annual Days of Caring event,” said Tony Penn, president and CEO of United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. “The projects in Days of Caring improve our cities, towns, and neighborhoods for thousands of families and individuals. This annual event exemplifies what’s possible when we serve together for the greater good. We invite all of our southern Arizona community to join in and be a part of building a stronger community,” Penn concluded.
For more details and registration information, please visit www.unitedwaytucson.org/daysofcaring.
