MISSOULA — On this United Way Day of Action, volunteers were called to step away from their desk and into the dirt.
The day is celebrated in communities around the world, but in Missoula local nonprofits received help from over 100 volunteers who dispersed all over the city on Friday.
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“I think it's just emblematic of who we are as a community, and definitely of what United Way does,” the development manager of United Way, Salina Chatlain, said.
A team from Stockman Bank was one of many groups that dedicated their time to support one of the 11 projects across Missoula. The team of 10 spent their day helping Garden City Harvest through gardening and landscaping at the Youth Farm.
“I’ve been doing this now five years, we always kind of get involved with the Day of Action event, it's a lot of fun,” Otis Mitchell, a volunteer from Stockman Bank, said.
Despite the rainy weather, the team cultivated fresh bean beds and potato fields, weeding everything out of the way.
“I think you see the benefit kind of everywhere," Mitchell said. "It's rewarding just knowing that you're helping the community."
He added that it was rewarding to have been “pulling the weeds from the food that feeds everybody."
Other volunteer groups around Missoula included Elks Insurance, Clearwater Credit Union, Blackfoot Communications, Daily’s Meats and First Interstate Bank just to list a few.
This year's projects included gardening and landscaping work for Homeword, cleanup at Travelers' Rest State Park, and gardening support at several places such as Garden City Harvest and the Youth Farm among others.
“We've got people packing food at the food bank, we've got people gardening and landscaping, we've got folks cleaning up Bancroft pond,” Chatlain said.
The volunteers had the chance to get out of the office and into the community to help their neighbors in need.
If you’d like to learn more about the work, you can visit MissoulaUnitedWay.org.
