WILKES-BARRE — The United Way of Wyoming Valley’s 32nd Annual Day of Caring got underway on Thursday with a breakfast program at The Woodlands Inn. It was a rainy spring day, but that did not stop the 650 volunteers from getting work done.
It may have been 32 years of caring for the United Way, but it was the first year under the helm of new President/CEO Sara Peperno, who was not deterred by the rain.
“We were anticipating a beautiful day that was sunny and would be a good day for outdoor projects, but unfortunately, the weather wasn’t on our side,” Peperno said. “We had to move some projects that were exclusively planned for outdoors to some indoor projects.”
The Annual Day of Caring technically wasn’t Peperno’s first — she was employed for 12 years at United Way before leaving to head Northeast Sight Services, Exeter. She returned the United Way just two months ago.
After breakfast, volunteers from 54 local businesses began working at 50 local nonprofit, charitable, and community organizations throughout the Wyoming Valley.
One such project was Sleep in Heavenly Peace, an national organization with a local chapter in Wyoming Valley, had over 85 volunteers producing wooden-framed beds at Diamond Manufacturing, Wyoming.
A huge tent was set up for volunteers to systematically manufactured twin beds through the process of a well-organized production line.
According to Denise Ogurkis, Sleep in Heavenly Peace president, the organization has been doing monthly bed builds since 2019 throughout Wyoming Valley.
“We have about 85 volunteers here at Diamond Manufacturing with more coming,” Ogurkis said. “We are planning on producing 100 beds to children from Luzerne County for children from ages of three to 17 who sleep on the floor, which is hard to believe, but we have a backlog of 758 beds needed.”
A food tent was also set up at Diamond Manufacturing where breakfast foods were served through Sleep in Heavenly Peace and Diamond Manufacturing provided lunch for all the volunteers.
Ogurkis said Diamond’s monetary donation was used to purchase lumber and other building materials to manufacture the beds.
Volunteers and financial donations are always welcome for bed builds by going to https://shpbeds.org/contact-us and selecting the PA-Luzerne chapter. At this page you can inquire about volunteering, sponsoring a build or request beds for children.
Volunteers from Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance Companies, Wilkes-Barre, were busy at Northeast Sight Services, Exeter, cleaning the property after a long winter by replacing mulch, clearing dead branches or bushes.
In addition to outside work for volunteers, Amy Feldman, Northeast Sight Services executive director, had indoor projects to be completed.
Awards
During the morning breakfast at The Woodlands Inn, Peperno said awards were presented to individuals and companies supporting the United Way:
• Large Corporate Award — Highmark.
• Small Corporate Award — M&T Bank.
• Rose Brader Community Service Award — Paul Hildebrand.
• Sarah & Anthony F. Kane, Jr. Achievement Award — Lindsay Barker.
Students being recognized included:
• Reese Woytowich — Holy Redeemer.
• Abigail Butler — Wyoming Area.
• Mia Altavilla — Wyoming Area.
• Sylvia Bash — Northwest Area.
• Maira Fayette — Wilkes-Barre Area.
• Ifechi “Chi” Ebi-Ekweozoh — Wyoming Seminary.
Peperno said she always enjoyed the Day of Caring as a former employee of United Way and is happy to see in her 12-year absence since returning; the fever for volunteering is still high.
“What’s so great about Day of Caring is, what I saw and what I can see, there is the same momentum and the same level of volunteerism in the community, which is exciting,” Peperno added. “One of the reasons I did go back to United Way is because I think having one organization that can impact so much in the community and bring together so many different people to help so many different things in the community is exciting.”
