Day of Caring'04

Largest event in

local history

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The members of Team Palm Beach Marinecraft look upon themselves as first-year rookies, even though they've washed windows and painted houses before.

Saturday afternoon found the team's four members in old jeans and United Way Day of Caring T-shirts painting the front and washing the windows of Gertrude Jones's one-story house on 3rd North Street.

While it might have been the team's first year in existence, it wasn't the first time Gertrude Jones has called on the United Way for help around the house. Last year, a team painted the ceilings. Another team painted Jones's kitchen two years ago.

Like many people who call on the United Way, Jones has lived at the same adress for 35 years. Her husband passed away 13 years ago and all of her children have long since moved out of the home, even though her son, who works as a computer programmer in Long Island, N.Y., recently expressed an interest in coming back to New Ulm.

"I can't do it myself anymore," Jones said, standing outside the garage, as team member Loren Domeier applied some fresh white paint to an overhang in front of the garage door. "I don't dare get up on that ladder."

As a member of Community and Seniors Together, Jones, in turn, volunteers her time making quilts at the Marktplatz Mall, making recycled greeting cards and playing in the CAST Humdingers Kitchen Band.

"It's a good relationship between adults and the younger generation," Jones said about the Day of Caring.

"It's just kinda cool," said team leader Jen Dirksen of New Ulm. "It's fun. It's fun to come out and help someone and we also have fun with each other."

Begining at 7:30 a.m., the day started with a free breakfast for the volunteers at the Brown County Fairgrounds. Most teams were at their work sites by 8:30 a.m., and many were finished by noon.

Most of the volunteers, like Team Palm Beach Marinecraft, painted houses, washed windows, trimmed hedges, mowed lawns, moved furniture, cleaned gutters and helped with housework. One team even visited a man in St. Mary's Apartments and played chess with him after cleaning his apartment. One team reshingled the roof of a house. Another team retarred a roof and built steps for another house.

This year's Day of Caring had between 350 and 375 volunteers working on 125 projects around the city. New Ulm United Way Director Carisa Buegler said she considers it the largest effort in the entire seven years that the Day of Caring has existed in New Ulm.

The day is the United Way's annual September event in which volunteers from the community take a few hours out of a Saturday morning to work on home projects for people who wouldn't normally be able to do them.

It also marks the kickoff of the United Way's annual campaign, which has a goal of raising $405,000 through partnerships with 80 local businesses and a direct mail campaign. Both will end in November, Buegler said.

"We want to keep people in their homes as long as we can," Buegler said. "Day of Caring is about celebrating the community."

In Flandrau State Park, members of a local Boy Scout troop spent a few hours repainting many of the park pool's parking lot curbs. In fact, roughly one third of those curbs got new coats of bright yellow paint Saturday morning. The boys had finished the last few feet of curb by 11:30 a.m.

Flandrau Park manager Tom Schmitz said the curbs need repainting every few years. He said the DNR has been using volunteers from the Day of Caring for most the time that the event has been in New Ulm.

"We've got an infinite amount of volunteer projects out here," he said. "We try to be a part of this every year."

The jobs in Flandrau range from painting to removing brush and exotic species of plants to picking up litter, he said.

"The incentive would be that we've got a lot of projects and not enough funding to do it with state employees," Schmitz said.

Brian Serbus, a loan officer for Valley Bank and Trust in New Ulm, is a four-year Day of Caring veteran. He's come out to volunteer for the annual event with Brown County Family Services and with the Boy Scouts before.

"I like it. It's a good thing. It's helping someone who needs help," Serbus said, walking towards some parked cars. "It's fun seeing all the different teams. You drive by a house and you see these crews in their T-shirts."