WINNEMUCCA - The success of Winnemucca's first "Community Day of Service" last month has assured the event will be repeated.
The event was an idea developed by the Community Collaboration Team, one of several teams organized through the Winnemucca Futures Project. The different Futures Project teams are tasked with putting together projects to bring to reality the vision of Winnemucca's future and direction developed over three years of futures project work
The team came up with the idea to bring community volunteers together to serve their neighbors by completing a variety of spring-type projects.
Team member Bob Shaw, who took the lead on organizing the event, noted there are two national service days, one on Sept. 11, and another on Martin Luther King Day, but said the team wanted their event to have its own separate day.
Shaw said the team chose their spring date because it was ideal for outdoor yard and fix-up projects.
The team wants to organize next year's Community Day of Service again during the first week of May. This year's day of service attracted some 70 volunteers who participated in well-organized service opportunities.
Team member Pat Gray said Shaw did a great job organizing the projects, which were detailed on clipboards that included a GPS map to the project site, along with information about the project (including any special skills needed).
Those who heeded the call for service gathered at Vesco Park where they had a chance to look over the 20 different projects, determine where their talents would best fit, and head out to serve neighbors.
Projects included laying sod, painting, fence repair, work on a retaining wall, seal-coating a mobile home roof, mowing a yard, spring cleaning at the community garden, digging a trench and assorted outdoor yard projects and clean up.
Gray said they've received gratitude from those who received the neighbor-to-neighbor service.
"So many expressed appreciation for the work done and said what a great job the volunteers did," said Gray.
Those who volunteered included members of several different churches, members of the Rotary Club, as well as individuals and families who saw the notice in the paper asking for Community Day of Service volunteers and just showed up.
Gray said he was impressed with the way groups split up and mixed together with others to accomplish the various projects with no thought to whether or not they knew the people they were serving.
The Humboldt Development Authority, which helped sponsor the project, treated all volunteers to a lunch of grilled hot dogs.
HDA Director Bill Sims said the volunteers put in a cumulative total of 280 hours of service, valued at around $3,000.
He commented, "We were very pleased with the turnout."
Shaw said the Community Collaboration Team has plans to try and make next year's second annual Community Day of Service "bigger and better than ever."[[In-content Ad]]
