How much difference did the 1,100 Spring Day of Caring volunteers make in the Quad Cities community when they mobilized across Scott and Rock Island counties on Thursday, May 18?
Nothing short of “huge” and “massive,” leaders of the Hauberg Civic Center and the Quad Cities Botanical Center said of the daylong-event’s impact on their Rock Island organizations.
And those were just two of about 65 locations that benefited from the United Way of the Quad Cities’ Day of Caring that was powered by volunteers from Quad-Cities businesses, labor unions, nonprofits, service groups, schools and more.
Since the local United Way held its first Day of Caring in 2005, some 29,000 volunteers have worked on 2,000 projects, tallying 120,000 volunteer hours and making a $2.8 million investment into the community. Those numbers would be even higher if the COVID-19 pandemic had not forced the cancellation of five Days of Caring workdays.
The impactful event returned last fall. And on Thursday volunteers took advantage of the return of the spring QC-wide volunteer event to spruce up schools and playgrounds, help area agencies, nonprofits and communities paint, plant, clean up, restock and more.
This year’s Spring Day of Caring also showed that “in the Quad Cities, people are our greatest strength,” United Way of the Quad Cities President and CEO Rene Gellerman said.
“Today, we have 1,100 reasons to smile,” she added in a news release. “We are incredibly grateful for the real people who made a real impact on our community today. And we’re thrilled with our business community who put leadership on display through employee volunteer projects and made today’s Day of Caring one to remember.”
Social media also was abuzz Thursday with photos of smiling volunteers. That included a group from Russell who spent the day helping get the walking trails, lodge and grounds at the YMCA Camp Abe Lincoln, Blue Grass, “ready for campers to enjoy summer fun,” according to a LinkedIn post by Melissa Pepper, chief strategy officer at the Davenport-based Russell.
Just a few hours into their volunteer day at the QC Botanical Center and the Hauberg, the impact of the contribution of those temporary workers was already apparent.
Amelia Seutter, the Botanical Center’s volunteer and guest services coordinator, told the QCBJ: “This means a lot to us. We get tons of work done for the sake of our gardens and also in furthering our mission of bringing people and plants together in fun and meaningful ways, not just for our guests but for the volunteers as well.”
Over the years, Ms. Seutter added, businesses and their employees and organizations also said they have enjoyed volunteering to help the center located in Rock Island “and we’re extremely, extremely thankful for their help.”
“The great thing about this is that it’s definitely a giant ‘before and after’ when you start and when you finish,” she added. “It’s just a great feeling of accomplishment.”
Throughout the grounds, smiling volunteers greeted Quad Cities media as they did the essential spring duties of weeding, planting, painting, shoveling, spreading mulch and more. That included Austin Waldo and Ca-Shon Payton of Estes Construction, Davenport, who said they were enjoying the sunny, pleasant morning as they worked to weed and clean out an overgrown bed as a few young families could be heard playing in the nearby playground.
The Botanical Center volunteers had a long to-do list. As did those working at Rock Island’s Hauberg Estate a few miles south where the impact of their efforts each year is critical not only on the historic house and grounds but on the Friends of Hauberg organization that runs the city-owned site. That’s according to Todd Linscott, who chairs the organization’s board, and among the volunteers.
The Friends group, which maintains and manages the Hauberg Estate & Gardens, is all-volunteer and despite those volunteers’ deep commitment, it’s difficult to find all the time necessary to do all that needs to be done to make the 10-acre site shine, Mr. Linscott said. Especially when you consider that Day of Caring volunteers represent some 25% of the volunteer hours contributed to the site each year
“We’ll do about 7,000 volunteer hours a year, but this is a huge component, it’s about 1,800 hours,” Mr. Linscott said. He added that the Friends of Hauberg felt the impact of the loss when COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the Day of Caring five times, and especially in the spring when their help is so crucial to getting the site ready for a busy summer season.
“It’s a huge push,” he said of the work Thursday by the small army of volunteers – many of them from different divisions of John Deere – who were mulching, cleaning out beds, planting flowers and creating new beds
In all, about 100 volunteers were working in the terrace gardens at the pond and in the nearby forest, said Deb Kuntzi, executive director of the Hauberg Estate.
The forest is where Tom Sparkman of Rock Island, another Friends board member, was at work carrying lumber with high school student JB Butler when the QCBJ caught up with them.
Ms. Butler was one of about 25 volunteers from Rock Island High School’s iJAG dropout prevention program. Among the projects their group focused on was to remove invasive and non-native trees from the property such as hackberry and silver maples.
“I like helping people and working as a team to make the world a better place, especially our environment,” Ms. Butler said. “It’s really fun. I like nature. So cutting down the trees is actually fun to do” despite being hard, she added.
When they stopped to chat, Mr. Sparkman and Ms. Butler were two links in a long chain of smiling iJAG members toting heavy planks of wood across the site as part of another project.
Getting the historic house and gardens ready to show its spring and summer face to visitors is a massive undertaking, Ms. Butler said. “Just look around.”
“We can’t do it by ourselves,” she added. “It’s too big of a place.”
