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Employees give back at Day of Caring
Dennis Black, vice president for university life and services and chair of UB’s Campaign for the Community, does a little painting at the Olmsted Center for Sight’s location on Alpine Road in Cheektowaga. Photo: STEVE MORSE
For Erik Seeman, becoming a Day of Caring volunteer was another way to extend his connection to the community.
“Up on the North Campus, we can feel isolated from the city,” said Seeman, associate professor in the Department of History and director of the Humanities Institute. “One of the things we try to do is build a bridge between the humanities faculty on North Campus and the rest of the city—whether it’s through speakers, programs and lectures.
“This is a small way to make that personal for me,” he said as he assisted visually impaired workers on an assembly line at the Olmsted Center for Sight, one of seven worksites where approximately 150 UB employees came together on Aug. 17 to take part in the 19th annual Day of Caring, Western New York’s largest community-service project.
Organized by the United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, Day of Caring also serves as the kickoff for UB’s annual Campaign for the Community.
Kamlesh Tripathi, wife of President Satish K. Tripathi, and Dennis Black, vice president for university life and services and chair of the 2011 Campaign for the Community, visited the seven worksites, delivering refreshments to hard-working faculty and staff busy painting fences and houses, mowing and cleaning up community gardens, and assisting disabled workers on manufacturing lines.
For the past three years, UB Day of Caring volunteers have helped out at the Olmsted Center for Sight. Georgian Davis, administrative assistant with university development, has helped out at Olmsted for two years. A volunteer for 17 of the 19 years of Day of Caring, Davis says it makes her feel good to get out in the community and give back, whether she’s working on a Habitat for Humanity house, helping at a halfway house or painting fences and labeling shirts—the latter two her volunteer jobs this year.
Francine Rizzo, director of development for the Olmsted center, says the ongoing relationship with UB and its volunteers is enthusiastically appreciated. “There’s always so much to do here and having so many volunteers really gets a lot accomplished before the cold weather comes,” Rizzo says.
Jessica Wangelin, community relations associate for programming in the Office of Community Relations and UB Day of Caring coordinator, says these volunteer projects help transform organizations with a vital surge of manpower, which often is critical for an organization.
“The employees’ volunteer hours help organizations accomplish a lot of work in a short amount of time—either to start, finish or continue working on projects—and these organizations don’t have those opportunities otherwise,” adds Wangelin.
This year, the United Way offered UB an opportunity to become involved in three full-day projects with the We Care Block Club and Habitat for Humanity. Volunteers normally are assigned to half-day projects.
According to the United Way, nearly 3,500 volunteers from Erie and Niagara counties participated in last year’s Day of Caring. In Erie County alone, 3,177 volunteers from 159 companies participated in 156 projects, benefiting 106 area agencies and the people they serve. Over the past 17 years, the efforts of Day of Caring volunteers have saved agencies in Erie and Niagara counties more than $6.1 million through more than 365,000 hours of service donated by 93,500 volunteers.
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