Volunteers pitch in for United Way

Volunteers for United Way's Day of Caring had plenty to do Wednesday at the Family Tree Learning Center in Sebring, including laminating, assembling, supervising, organizing and labeling.

"Well, this is certainly different from what I've been doing," said Julia Newell of the Girl Scouts, as she sat in small child's chair and trimmed illustrated sheets with a paper cutter.

In past years on the Day of Caring, she has done a lot of painting, and last year dug mulch out at a daycare center.

"That was a lot of fun," Newell said with a wry laugh. "But this is quite a bit different. I kind of like to be doing busy work, but that's OK; everything needs to be done."

Volunteers from the School Board of Highlands County and the Girl Scouts tackled a variety of tasks as the Family Tree Learning Center on Medical Way prepared for its annual assessment by the Early Learning Coalition.

"They are very picky about things such as labeling so everything has to be labeled," said Jennifer Dean, the learning center's owner/director.

The volunteers either helped with supervising the children outside or worked in the classrooms.

School board construction manager Frank Brown did not know what type of job he would be doing, but he said he was ready for anything.

When Dean said she needed someone to replace burned out fluorescent light tubes, other school board employees pointed their fingers squarely at Brown.

Judy Crisp, from the school board's print shop, also had a job tailor made for her, operating a laminating machine.

Also from the school board, Cheryl Evans, Sean Szoka and Linda Claitt assembled toys such as a plastic ironing board and vacuum cleaner and a ride-able car.

"We are very glad that they came to help," Dean said. "They're going to help us get a lot done."

The teachers are so busy with the kids during the day, she said. So this is going to give them some time to get some stuff done that they want to get done, but they just don't have the time to do it.

Overall, the United Way of Central Florida had 300 volunteers among 30 teams working at various locations in Highlands County on this Day of Caring.

The number of volunteers is up a little from last year, Highlands County Area United Way Director ShareenLynn Childs said Wednesday.

"It has been fantastic," she said. "The volunteers are fabulous and the agencies get a tremendous amount of work out of all the volunteers.

"They get things done that they wouldn't normally either have the time to do, on a volunteer basis, or they don't have the funds."