17th Annual United Way Day of Caring Approaches

About 1,100 volunteers will spend the day making a difference across the Greater Seacoast region Wednesday, September 10th during the 17th Annual United Way Fall Day of Caring. For some volunteers, this will be a new experience, but for two veteran team leaders from Liberty Mutual, spending the day at local nonprofits is an annual and deeply personal - affair.

Wayne Goss, Senior Release Engineer at Liberty Mutual in Dover has volunteered for United Way's Day of Caring since it began 17 years ago. When asked to reflect on the experiences that keep him coming back, Goss looked back to the Day of Caring on September 11th, 2001.

We all arrived at the Habitat for Humanity site around 9 a.m., and I remember hearing on the radio that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center and I thought it was just a small plane. I don't think we truly understood what was happening and began to just hammer away, Goss said.

It wasn't until the group broke for lunch that they began to really understand what was happening. The team met and gave everyone the option to leave the site if they wanted. Everyone stayed. We weren't sacrificing our lives, like so many did on that day, but we were sacrificing our personal lives and our time for a family who needed our help. That was a very powerfully emotional day, one that I will remember of all the Days of Caring I've done.

For Michele Aronne, a Liberty Mutual employee in Portsmouth, it's the feeling she gets from giving back to her community that's kept her coming back to Day of Caring for the past 8 years. There is nothing more satisfying than giving some of your precious time to others because it is almost always the best time of your life, Aronne said.

Aronne highlighted the comfort she felt knowing that there are people like her fellow volunteers her team has been together for the entire 8 years she's been the team leader in the community. You never know where you might be one day, said Aronne. It could be your turn and having people out there willing to help you could really make a difference.

This year, over 1,000 volunteers from 40 local businesses will work on 130 different projects throughout the community. We do just about anything, team leader Goss added. We have dug ditches, painted walls, washed windows, spread mulch, played bingo with senior citizens, served meals, cut down trees, and built sheds. And every year, we all get together and do it again!

Day of Caring is sponsored by: Platinum Level, Liberty Mutual Group; Gold Level, Exeter Health Resources; Silver Level, Bottomline Technologies, Inc.; Bronze Level, FPL Energy Seabrook Station, Heinemann, Lonza Biologics, Inc., Newmarket International, Sprague Energy, and Unitil.