EATON — Across the globe, United Way held its Day of Action on or around June 21. United Way of the Greater Dayton Area Preble County Office held its day on Friday, June 22.
The Day of Action is meant to mobilize the public to volunteer in the area and recognize the needs of the greater community.
Preble County businesses and residents came together to volunteer their time at the Domestic Violence Shelter, Preble County Council on Aging (PCCOA), and L&M Products. Projects included: window washing, gardening, painting, and more.
“Day of Action is an annual event that all United Ways have in common, where we mobilize volunteers to do different service projects,” Preble County Director Alexa Joyce said. “This year, we made all of our funded agencies give us an opportunity for Day of Action, so different businesses and volunteers would get the see the sort of work that United Way does.
“All of our companies around here are good about wanting to volunteer and give back. I sent an email, telling them what opportunities we have, and they notified their employees. Day of Action shows the people who don’t get the opportunity to do service work every day the different needs our community has.
“The best way to make someone understand a need is to really get your hands dirty. These activities are a good way to show people the services and needs we have in Preble County.”
Casey Bindewald with Parker Hannifin was one of the two women who applied to volunteer at the Domestic Violence Shelter. Both women had to sign a confidentiality form, stating that they would not disclose the location of the shelter.
“We started up our community high performance team not too long ago. One of the new programs we came up with is giving time to the community, so all of the team members can give up to four hours a year, and we have about 250 employees at the Eaton facility, so we had a signup sheet and whoever was interested could go from there,” Bindewald explained.
“Even from listening to some of the employees on the floor, we love to give back. A lot had heard of this event, but several had heard of other events. You can tell from the atmosphere that they love giving back to the community. We have a board that displays every activity we have participated in.”
Patty Stallard and Michelle Niswonger were part of the larger group who volunteer their time at L&M Products. This was Niswonger’s first year participating in Day of Action, but Stallard had volunteered her time in the past.
“I enjoy helping others, I think its fun. You get to meet new people and do different things,” Stallard said.
Niswonger said, “[Stallard] told me how much fun they had last year and I wanted to join in this year. Volunteering builds a stronger community.”
Joyce added, “We want to thank the employees of TimkenSteel, Parker Hannifin, and a special shout out to Jeff Parker who came out on his own time to help out today.”
