Day of Caring: 1,600 volunteers tackle host of QC projects

 Michelle Ritter was busy pushing a wheelbarrow filled with mulch to the many places that will have flowers and other plants outside the Quad City Botanical Center in Rock Island on Thursday, April 25. It was a tough job, but the Sherrard, Illinois, woman said she loved helping out the botanical center. “I’m here to […]

 Michelle Ritter was busy pushing a wheelbarrow filled with mulch to the many places that will have flowers and other plants outside the Quad City Botanical Center in Rock Island on Thursday, April 25. It was a tough job, but the Sherrard, Illinois, woman said she loved helping out the botanical center. “I’m here to help the community. My daughter loves flowers, so this place is near and dear to my heart,” said Ms. Ritter, who is a John Deere employee.

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Mr. Ritter was one of more than 1,600 people from the region who took part in Thursday’s “Day of Caring” presented by the United Way Quad Cities. This community-wide event presented in partnership with University of Iowa Health Care, and held during National Volunteer Week, engages Quad Citizens in meaningful, hands-on volunteer projects across Rock Island and Scott Counties to better the community. Volunteers came from many businesses, agencies, churches and groups. Some heard the United Way needed help and showed up to work. The 1,600-plus volunteers the local Day of Caring efforts attracted represents the most since the pandemic era, said Kevin Smith, vice president of communications for the United Way Quad Cities. He added that there were so many people volunteering on Thursday, many additional community projects were able to be completed. The volunteer numbers for the event have been steadily increasing over the past few years. For example, the Day of Caring event from two years ago had about 1,300 volunteers. More than 30,000 volunteers have participated in United Way Quad Cities’ Day of Caring since 2005. Their collective investment of time has totaled 120,000 hours or the equivalent of $2.8 million, using Independent Sector’s estimated value of volunteer time, according to information from the United Way. On Thursday, the volunteers worked at parks, schools, care centers, historic sites, community centers and many other places and took on many different chores. At the botanical center, about 70 volunteers – mostly Deere & Co. employees –  were busy hauling wheelbarrows full of mulch,  weeding and unloading young plants from a semi-truck, painting benches and other jobs. “Uniting people, organizations and resources to bring about much-needed change is our super power,” said Marci Zogg, United Way Quad Cities’ vice president of community impact, in a news release. “Our hearts are full because of our talented and committed friends and business partners who dedicated their mornings and afternoons to truly make our community shine today.” Some of the local places volunteers gathered and worked at on Thursday included: 

• The Butterworth Center & Deere-Wiman House in Moline. Volunteers helped restore Deere-Wiman’s formal garden, power wash stone work and restore interior walls.
• Logan Elementary School in Moline. Volunteers cleaned the school’s front landscaping and spread new mulch for the spring.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Rock Island, where they helped build an outdoor classroom.
• YMCA Camp Abe Lincoln in Blue Grass. Volunteers helped prepare the lodge and cabins for its summer camping season.
• Amowa Forest Preserve in East Moline where volunteers worked alongside Living Lands and Waters workers to remove invasive plant species.
• Hand in Hand in Bettendorf, where volunteers painted, did landscape work  and helped fix up the outdoor learning space.

At the Quad City Botanical Center, the day begin at a cool, sunny 9 a.m. with the workers – many dressed in blue t-shirts with the United Way logo on the front – getting their assignments and being sent off to different sections of the botanical center grounds. One of those volunteers was Jim Wince, a Deere & Co. employee who used to work for the United Way Quad Cities. His assignment sent him next to a big pile of mulch. He spent much of the morning using a pitch fork to put mulch in wheelbarrows that were headed for different planting areas of the botanical center’s grounds. Mr. Wince also spent much of the morning pushing the mulch-filled wheelbarrow to various places around the grounds. It was tough, but he said he enjoyed lending a helping hand. “It’s great to help out here. There are so many good projects,” he added. Botanical Center staff members said they were grateful for the Day of Caring event. “It’s such a huge help. They (volunteers) just plow through all the jobs. … Everybody is so enthusiastic,” said Kate Mapes, an assistant gardener and project manager at the center. Ms. Mapes was kept busy Thursday morning coordinating many jobs around the center. One of those tasks was coordinating the delivery and distribution of about 3,000 young plants for the center. They included many varieties of flowers, eggplants, English thyme, green zucchini and many other species. They were unloaded from a semi-truck by the volunteers and delivered to different parts of the grounds. While looking over those young plants and other in-progress projects, Ryan Wille, executive director of the botanical center, said he was also grateful for the work being done by the volunteers. “This is all vital to our spring operations. … It’s amazing to see how much they get done,” he added. “We’re proud to stand alongside the United Way QC and 1,600 caring residents who volunteered,” said Jackie Kleppe, director of outreach and engagement at the University of Iowa Health Care, in a news release. “The energy and enthusiasm of Day of Caring volunteers reminds us of the incredible impact we can make when we work together.”