(From the United Way of Hancock County)

Local volunteers will put in nearly 700 service hours in just three days during United Way of Hancock County’s Fall Days of Caring event.

Spanning Sept. 22-24, this biannual volunteer event has matched 173 volunteers with 26 service projects. These volunteers’ landscaping, organizing, painting, cleaning and construction efforts will add up to 692 hours and will save local organizations over $24,000 in labor costs, based on the estimated value of a volunteer hour at $33.49.

Volunteer teams are made up primarily of workplace groups and will work in four-hour shifts at locations throughout Hancock County.

“We want to thank our corporate partners for their cooperation in generously allowing their employees to devote time out of their work week to better our community,” said United Way of Hancock County CEO Kelley McClurkin.

“Fall Days of Caring is a wonderful effort that workplace teams rally behind every year, and it’s a great kickoff to our Campaign season. Thank you, volunteers, for contributing your time and energy in such a meaningful way!”

Days of Caring sponsors include City Apparel + Merch, Marathon Petroleum Corp., Whirlpool Corp., Freudenberg-NOK and First National Bank.

In addition to next week’s activities, a five-day Days of Caring event was held in May. During that week, 861 volunteers put in 3,444 service hours to complete 89 projects.

Volunteers United, the agency’s internal volunteer hub, placed over 10,200 volunteer hours in 2024. Visit liveunitedhancockcounty.org/volunteersunited for more information about Days of Caring or how you can get involved with local volunteer efforts.