Each fall, United Way for Greater Austin (UWATX) welcomes corporate volunteer teams and individuals from the community to celebrate the spirit of volunteerism through a one day service extravaganza called Fall Day of Caring (FDOC). This year’s Fall Day of Caring presented by NXP Semiconductors was held on Sept. 23 and brought close to 800 volunteers to over 30 volunteer projects at nonprofits and schools all over Austin. Volunteers cleaned out gardens, prepped materials for teachers, built play structures and much more. UWATX believes that anyone can be a philanthropist by giving their time to make their community stronger, smarter, safer, and more beautiful for everyone. Through events like Fall Day of Caring, we invite everyone to be a part of making Austin greater! FDOC wouldn’t be possible without our amazing sponsors: Austin Coca-Cola, Broadway Bank, JE Dunn, Kerbey Lane Café and NXP Semiconductors. These companies empower not only their own employees, but hundreds of other Central Texans to give their time to causes they’re passionate about at FDOC projects. In addition to sponsoring the event, each of these companies send their own workers– from executives to entry level employees – out to work together to accomplish huge projects for nonprofits in need of a little help. JE Dunn volunteers utilized their construction expertise to make the playground at Trinity Child Development Center safer by building a raised deck over a frequently flooded area on the playground. Trinity CDC, part of UWATX’s Center Project initiative, provides high quality early child education […]
Read MoreFall Day of Caring 2015
Our annual Fall Day of Caring took place last week on September 11th, in conjunction with the National Day of Service and Remembrance. We could not think of a better way to remember this day than by giving back to our community, and neither could the hundreds of volunteers who joined us. This year, volunteers gave back what equates to more than $80,000 worth of work in just one day! More than 1,000 volunteers spent the day giving back at 40 projects across the city, including gardening projects, clean ups, assembling materials for our programs and sprucing up afterschool and Pre-K sites. Many of the volunteers came from our corporate partners, who utilized the day to not only give back but as a great opportunity for team-building. Team members from GM and UPS assembled materials for our Play To Learn program and loaded tablets for low-income families with educational apps and parent resources. Austin Coca-Cola assisted our funded partner BookSpring with sorting books. Rockwell Automation, PBK Architects, Aspen Heights, Build-a-Sign and Liquidation Channel teamed up to prep Creative Action for their variety of youth programs. Freescale employees worked on a variety of projects at Girlstart, the Empty Bowl Project and the Capital Area Food Bank. Farmers Insurance worked at Blackland Community Development Corporation. UWATX’s Women’s Leadership Council, a group of our most invested women donors dedicated to our early childhood education work, spent the day at El Buen Pastor organizing the resource room. JE Dunn and Advisory Board Company worked on improving the playground […]
Read MoreFall Day of Caring: 800+ volunteers come together!
On Friday, September 23, United Way Capital Area closed its doors as employees joined over 800 volunteers to complete 35 projects throughout the community. In total, volunteers gave 2,982 hours of service for UWCA’s Fall Day of Caring. Individuals from 22 Austin-area companies came together in teams to build community gardens, support local organizations, mentor students in career skills and much more. The event also boasts a key record: 28 projects were led by UWCA-trained Volunteer Project Leaders– each of them participated in a 2-hour session to learn how to make meaningful and lasting change in their community. Over the past 6 years, UWCA has taught hundreds of volunteer leaders as part of this national training initiative. To say thank you to our dedicated volunteers, we put together a YouTube video featuring clips and photos from throughout the day. Random quotes of kindness: Austin Nature & Science Center– I was amazed at how everyone worked together to get the project done. The people from the Austin Statesman really did an awesome job. The place looks remarkable, more than I expected. I really like that we are able to be a part of the Days of Caring with United Way. We always get so much done on those volunteer days. Thank you so much! – Project Leader Mainspring Schools– I absolutely loved this event. Sometimes when I volunteer, I don’t get to see the full impact of what my time and energy is buying. In this instance, I was able to see the […]
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