We Don’t Just Wear the Shirt – We Live It!

A sunshine-soaked September day provided the perfect backdrop for Ottawa County to LIVE UNITED on Day of Caring 2009. By 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 17, the first crews of volunteers were already at work—hammering, sawing, sanding, painting, pulling weeds, clearing trees, and pushing wheelbarrows.  By day’s end, more than 600 volunteers from Ottawa County companies, schools, service clubs, and agencies—along with individual volunteers who had signed up to help at www.ottawaunitedway.org--had completed more than 60 projects from Allendale to Zeeland, Coopersville to West Olive, and nearly every community  in between.

Yogi Bear Camp & Resort on US 31 provided  a shady place to take a break and enjoy a picnic lunch prepared by AD Bos Vending Services, Inc. of Holland, with hot dogs donated by Sara Lee. (And in true LIVE UNITED spirit, leftover hot dogs and potato salad were donated to the Holland Rescue mission.)

Maury Fredricks, President of Fredricks Design, summed up the spirit of the day:  “When I set out in the morning, I thought to myself ‘Why am I doing this? There’s so much I need to get done at work.’ But then we arrived at the Center for Women in Transition and started helping. It was such a beautiful day, and it turned into a great team building experience. We were all glad we’d made the time to help.  It was just great for the soul.”