Day of Caring on October 4
Presented by ACE Hardware

Contact: Kelley Nave at 423-752-0322, 304-3579 or kelleynave@uwchatt.org
Release: Immediately Upon Receipt??

United way recruits volunteers to make a hands-on impact
at 24 locations across the community in a single day
The United Way Day of Caring ? presented by ACE Hardware ? is Thursday, October 4

The Volunteer Center of the United Way of Greater Chattanooga has recruited more than 200 volunteers to make community improvements during the organization's annual Day of Caring scheduled for Thursday, October 4 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at all locations. Volunteers are still needed. Individuals and companies can volunteer for a Day of Caring project by calling the United Way Volunteer Center at 752-0300 or 752-0316. You can also go online at www.uwchatt.org to register yourself or your company for the Day of Caring. Eight projects still need to be adopted, so call now.

During this annual volunteer initiative, sponsored by ACE Hardware, volunteers will work on 24 projects proposed by area neighborhood associations, schools and nonprofit organizations. Many of the projects involve maintenance, painting, repair, cleaning and landscaping that the recipients desperately need yet don?t want it to detract from their programming needs. All scheduled projects were approved by the Volunteer Center's review panel, the Corporate Volunteer Council.

Some scheduled volunteer teams and their projects for this year will include: the Chattanooga Gas Company landscaping at the North Chattanooga YMCA; Memorial Hospital finishing a Habitat for Humanity House; McKee Foods painting murals at the Chattanooga Urban League; Unum landscaping at the Zoo; and SunTrust Bank reading and doing crafts for the residents at St. Barnabas Nursing Home.

As part of their participation, ACE Hardware's 13 local stores collected a portion of their Labor Day weekend sales to fund the volunteer projects. ACE donated almost $8,000 in money and materials to help support the individual projects that are scheduled throughout the community.

This year's Site of the Day will be the new Born Learning Trail at the Greenway in Collegedale, near the Imagination Station playground and the Veterans? Memorial Park. Thanks to a combination of hard work and building materials, both courtesy of ACE Hardware, this Collegedale park will be the first location in Tennessee to have a United Way Born Learning Trail. The Born Learning Trails are a national program initiated by United Way of America. The helpful folks at ACE Hardware will build the Trail in one day with their own staff.

?These trails are part of our Project Ready for School program,? says Grant Law, Chairman of the Invest in Children initiatives for the United Way, ?and we?re so thrilled to finally install the first one in our area. This is a great literacy education tool for kids and we hope it is the beginning of many trails.

United Way of Greater Chattanooga funds local programs that create opportunities for people to care for themselves and each other, making our community the best at helping people achieve their potential. Thanks to an endowment that covers all overhead and administrative expenses, all contributions received (100%) go directly to services that help individuals and families in greater Chattanooga, north Georgia and northeast Alabama. Call the United Way at 423-752-0300 for more information.

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