Hearts to serve, hands to work

A shiny new cedar fence went up in no time as dozens of Mountain West Bank employees worked at a steady pace.

They traded in their button-ups for T-shirts and swapped their keyboards for shovels and rakes while contributing their time and talents on Thursday to United Way of North Idaho's 11th annual Day of Caring.

“It is truly rewarding to see all of our people from tellers to executive level staff get out here and just get dirty and serve," said Jenna Gilliland, Mountain West vice president/Ironwood branch manager. "We have a culture of service at Mountain West Bank, and it truly is amazing to see just how much of an impact we can make in such a short span of time. This fence, when we got here, was not even the frame."

Team lead Gilliland and her crew worked alongside Habitat for Humanity to spruce up a house and large lot on Fourth Street. Habitat executive director James Casper, wearing shades and work gloves, leaned on a shovel as he expressed the value of the volunteers' work.

"It’s probably the coolest part of Habitat," he said. "The most genuinely important part is the people from the community. We do some things to make it possible, but if it wasn't for the community support in this way, whether it’s this physical work or coming to shop with us at the ReStore, it doesn’t exist without that."

Teams of volunteers from businesses and organizations including Wells Fargo, Avista, Alliance Data, Sysco and St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho were sent out into North Idaho communities to lighten the load of various nonprofits and lend their hands to complete tasks such as splitting wood, building shelves, winterizing yards, painting, landscaping, sorting books and whatever else needed to be done.

Bonner County saw volunteers do exterior landscaping at Kinderhaven as well as at Mountain States Early Head Start; painting the soon-to-open Freedom House for men working to recover from addiction; adding gravel and leveling a parking lot at Sandpoint Area Seniors as well as building shelves, cleaning gutters and organizing storage area; painting the outside of Panhandle Special Needs main building, landscaping and painting an educational mural on a small storage building next to the playground at North Idaho College Head Start.

In adiditon, volunteers headed to Priest River Ministries, Creations, Bonner County History Museum, Bonner Homeless Transitions, Kaniksu Land Trust and the Sandpoint Music Conservatory for projects at those organizations as well.

"It’s a great opportunity for a broad community engagement so, one, more people know about the needs in the community and, two, how the local organizations are solving those needs," said Keri Stark, UWNI community impact director and Day of Caring coordinator. "The almost 400 people that showed up today, they're there for a day, but it helps these agencies do their job and serve our citizens more efficiently. For a lot of them, it’s work they would have to contract out."

Volunteers helped nonprofits such as Hospice of North Idaho, Tesh, Inc., Idaho Youth Ranch, Family Promise, Children's Village, Hayden Senior Center and more.

Mark Tucker, United Way of North Idaho executive director, said between the two counties, hundreds of volunteers turned out for the Day of Caring with 28 companies lending employees to the 33 different project sites in the communities.

“It’s a great day where we can roll up our sleeves and help our community, where we can do so much good,” Tucker told the dozens of volunteers who turned at for a kickoff breakfast in Sandpoint.

While not all volunteers are associated with a business, companies take the day to “another level.” Some have a few people due to the size of the business, others are like Mountain West Bank, which closes all of their branches — 23 in the region — with the exception of the drive-thrus and send those employees out into the communities to help others.

“We rely on partnerships, we rely on people like you who roll up their sleeves and help through financial means or volunteerism to make a difference,” Tucker said, telling the volunt he was turning them loose to head to the varied projects. “It takes everyone coming together, it’s not one silver bullet to solve problems in our communities. Now get out there and get to work.”

In Bonner County, the event grew from a handful of projects last year to 13 this year. Shanna Yarbrough, branch manager of the Sandpoint branch has been there from the start, beginning her volunteer services with a playground project in Kootenai County.

There, a little girl, 2, ran up to her and hugged her leg.

“That left such a lasting impression in my memory,” Yarbrough said. “I look forward to this event every year and it was so special and she thought I was her mom so maybe it wasn’t such a great thing.”

That memory, however, stayed with her and Yabrough said she looks forward to the Day of Caring every year.

“It’s pulled at my heart strings ever since,” she added. “Oh my gosh, I’m sold on this forever.”.

At the national rate of $21 per hour for volunteer work, with an estimated 370 volunteers helping in Kootenai and Bonner counties, those nonprofits collectively saved at least $7,770 if each volunteer worked an hour.

“I honestly couldn’t feel more blessed," Gilliland said. "I personally have a heart to serve, and to be able to come from a place of ‘yes’ through my organization, to be able to do it during our workday, you couldn’t ask for anything better."

“Days like this really show what it means to live united,” Stark said. “It’s what United Way tries to do throughout the year. (We) strengthen these organizations and that sense that we all belong to each other and we’re all responsible for the well-being of our citizens. We all have a role in it. I think that’s important, now more than ever.”