Day of Caring volunteers from SafeGlass learn how to winterize water pipes Friday morning at the Cannon River Mobile Home Park. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Day of Caring volunteers from the Minnesota Department of Human Services help paint a 19th century schoolhouse and outhouse on the Rice County Fairgrounds. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
SageGlass employees measure and cut plastic to place over a window to help a home retain heat at the Cannon River Mobile Home Park in Faribault as part of the Rice County United Way Day of Caring Friday. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Department of Human Services employees Karla Jaeger and Melissa Stoltz paint the schoolhouse outhouse on the Rice County Fairgrounds Friday morning as part of the Rice County United Way Day of Caring. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Volunteers from SageGlass work on a gardening project at the Hope Center in Faribault. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Child)
Day of Caring volunteers from the Department of Human Services help Rice County Historical Society volunteers move scaffolding outside the Historical Society’s schoolhouse. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Cari Odegaard hands tape to Andrei Halavaty as he winterizes a window with plastic during their volunteer shift at the Cannon River Mobile Home Park. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Volunteers Janine Brady and Jerry Walsh paint an eave of the 1858 schoolhouse. (Kristine Goodrich/southernminn.com)
Tri-City United Lonsdale Elementary School students gather after planting trees as part of the Rice County United Way’s Day of Caring. (Colton Kemp/southernminn.com)
A volunteer sorts baby clothes for Infants Remembered in Silence. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Child)
Day of Caring volunteers from SafeGlass learn how to winterize water pipes Friday morning at the Cannon River Mobile Home Park. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Day of Caring volunteers from the Minnesota Department of Human Services help paint a 19th century schoolhouse and outhouse on the Rice County Fairgrounds. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
SageGlass employees measure and cut plastic to place over a window to help a home retain heat at the Cannon River Mobile Home Park in Faribault as part of the Rice County United Way Day of Caring Friday. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
Volunteers from SageGlass work on a gardening project at the Hope Center in Faribault. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Child)
Volunteers Janine Brady and Jerry Walsh paint an eave of the 1858 schoolhouse. (Kristine Goodrich/southernminn.com)
Tri-City United Lonsdale Elementary School students gather after planting trees as part of the Rice County United Way’s Day of Caring. (Colton Kemp/southernminn.com)
A volunteer sorts baby clothes for Infants Remembered in Silence. (Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Child)
A nonprofit worker who helps mobile home residents winterize their homes received reinforcements from SageGlass Friday morning. Meanwhile, just a mile away, a trio of volunteers who’ve spent countless hours scraping, priming and painting a 164-year-old school house were being helped by state employees.
They were just two of nearly 20 sites across Rice County where teams with a total of approximately 200 volunteers made a difference as part of the Rice County United Way’s inaugural Day of Caring.
The United Way paired nonprofits, schools and other civic organizations in need of some extra hands with volunteers from businesses, schools and a few other organizations and families.
Countless hours were volunteered, even with rain pausing some outdoor projects or drawing them to an early end.
“We got a lot done in the morning and some even kept going in the rain,” United Way Executive Director Elizabeth Child said.
Department of Human Services employees Karla Jaeger and Melissa Stoltz paint the schoolhouse outhouse on the Rice County Fairgrounds Friday morning as part of the Rice County United Way Day of Caring. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
On the Rice County Fairgrounds, eight volunteers from the Faribault office of the Minnesota Department of Human Services hurried to finish before the raindrops fell.
For three years, Rice County Historical Society volunteers Pat O’Connor, Monte Kroeze and Denny Blackmer have been working to refinish the exterior of the former District 22 one-room schoolhouse that once welcomed children a few miles north of Faribault.
The schoolhouse was brought to the fairgrounds in the 1960s as part of a movement to showcase rural life at fairs, said Rice County Historical Society Executive Director Sue Garwood. The new paint is “critical” to protecting the old wood building from the elements, she said.
O’Connor, who’s leading the project, said he’s spent “hundreds” of hours at the schoolhouse, most of them removing what appeared to be upwards of a dozen layers of paint, so the new coat will hopefully last longer. He was happy to have some help with putting on the fresh paint.
DHS employees Kristi Larson and Melissa Stoltz said they were happy to help and the service time also served as an opportunity for team-building with her co-workers.
Day of Caring volunteers from the Department of Human Services help Rice County Historical Society volunteers move scaffolding outside the Historical Society’s schoolhouse. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
SageGlass sent over two dozen volunteers to four project sites in Faribault. Participating in the Day of Caring was one of the first initiatives of the company’s new charity committee, said Ashley Martin, executive assistant to the CEO. Every SageGlass employee was invited to volunteer while still receiving their day’s salary.
“It’s nice to give employees the opportunity to volunteer and still get paid,” Martin said.
Cari Odegaard hands tape to Andrei Halavaty as he winterizes a window with plastic during their volunteer shift at the Cannon River Mobile Home Park. (Kristine Goodrich/southerminn.com)
At the Cannon River Mobile Home Park, Martin and five other employees wrapped tape around pipes and taped plastic sheeting over windows. They were helping Brian Kopack of Healthy Community Initiative and Growing Up Healthy on his mission to help weatherize and rehab mobile homes across Rice County.
Meanwhile other groups from SageGlass were scheduled to help remove some of the invasive buckthorn plant from the River Bend Nature Center, do yard work for the Hope Center and do an assortment of tasks for Infants Remembered in Silence.
The volunteers did sometimes physically taxing work that the nonprofits hadn’t been able to accomplish on their own, Child said.
“It was really great to hear how happy the nonprofits were for the help,” she said.
Two youth groups who were busy with school Friday also are planning belated Day of Caring service projects on Saturday in Northfield.
Child said she’s now thinking about officially making it a two-day event next year.
“The first year was such a success, we definitely want to do it again,” she said.
Reach Associate Editor Kristine Goodrich at 507-333-3134. ©Copyright 2022 APG Media of Southern Minnesota. All rights reserved.
Data included is taken from the Minnesota Department of Health Daily reports. Because all data is preliminary, the change in number of cumulative positive cases and deaths from one day to the next may not equal the newly reported cases or deaths.
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