Residents Benefit From Days Of Caring

 By Nancy K. Crevier

More than 40 volunteers from The Taunton Press, Union Savings Bank, Newtown Savings Bank, and People’s United Bank donated their time and talents on Wednesday, September 19, to assist with projects at the Children’s Adventure Center on Riverside Road, Newtown Youth & Family Services, and Nunnawauk Meadows. The volunteers were part of the 13th Annual United Way of Western Connecticut’s Annual Days of Caring.

United Way of Western Connecticut was formed July 1 with the merge of United Way of Stamford, Housatonic/Shepaug, and Northern Fairfield County. Human service programs and community initiatives in Bethel, Bridgewater, Brookfield, Danbury, Kent, New Fairfield, Newtown, New Milford, Redding, Ridgefield, Roxbury, Sherman, Stamford, Warren, and Washington benefit from the generosity of this organization and the volunteers in these towns.

At Nunnawauk Meadows, 14 Taunton Press volunteers pitched in to help residents wash windows, weed their gardens, take down and wash draperies, and assisted them with various other chores and upkeep. Forty-five residents signed up for assistance this year, said Noreen Wilcox, the Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging residential service coordinator at Nunnawauk Meadows. “[The residents] are so appreciative of the help doing things that are too much for them to handle anymore,” said Ms Wilcox.

“I’ve waited 70 years to have someone else wash my windows, so I’m just going to sit down and enjoy my breakfast while these nice guys take care of my windows,” said Mary Vitarbo, as volunteers Andy Corson and Walter Aponte set to work early Wednesday morning. Ms Vitarbo echoed the sentiments of many Nunnawauk Meadows residents when she expressed her gratitude for the helping hands offered by the United Way volunteers.

“I just can’t do these things anymore,” said 91-year-old resident Mary Panciera, as Linda Ballerini offered her assistance in dusting windowsills and washing windows. Ms Ballerini served as organizer for The Taunton Press group, and has been actively involved in past years United Way Days of Caring.

“We try to get new people every year from Taunton Press to take part,” said Ms Ballerini, “but we also have a lot of people who want to [take part in Days of Caring] every year.”

The Newtown Days of Caring was just one of 40 Days of Caring projects sponsored on Wednesday in communities around Northern Fairfield and Southern Litchfield Counties. United Way estimates that between them, the volunteers will invest more than 6,800 hours of service and generate close to $200,000 in donated work hours and materials.

In a press release issued by United Way this week, June Renzulli, president of United Way of Western Connecticut, said, “Days of Caring offer an opportunity for individuals and businesses across the community to demonstrate their ongoing commitments not only to volunteerism, but to those who serve people in need.”

A fifth United Way Days of Caring is scheduled in the near future for Kevin’s Community Center in Newtown.