The Bristol Press

Friday, May 17, 2013

By Diane Church

BRISTOL — Hundreds of volunteers in neon green T-shirts gathered at area non-profits Friday for the United Way’s annual Day of Caring.

Students, employees from participating businesses and individuals of all ages cleaned the grounds, painted and helped spruce up non-profits in Bristol, Plainville and Terryville.

The initiative started in 1992 to help employees of local corporations interact with human-service agencies and has grown every year. While United Way promotes community-service volunteer efforts year-round, this day brings hundreds of people together to make a difference in their community.

At Shepard Meadows Therapeutic Riding Center, 40 students from the Sports Hall of Fame and some people from General Electric in Plainville helped with spring cleaning.

“This is fantastic,” said Dave Demarais, a facilities worker, as the volunteers headed into the house for lunch. “They got so much done.”

The adults helped rebuild a 200-year-old barn on the premises and mowed the grass, while the teens cleaned stables, brought hay down from the loft, painted and repaired fences, raked the grass and did other tasks.

Shepard Meadows has nine horses, a donkey, a goat and other small animals. Disabled people and autistic children learn to ride horses there.

Monica Roccaparieore and Mary Ranagan of the Sports Hall of Fame enjoyed helping out.

“I like being outside,” said Ranagan, “and seeing what it’s like to work on a farm.”

Mark Ziogas, a director of the Sports Hall of Fame, was proud of the students, many of whom are juniors who will be athletic team captains when they are seniors.

“It’s a nice activity,” he said. “They did a lot of manual labor. GE is doing a fantastic job too.”

Over at the New England Carousel Museum, other volunteers from GE and Kohl’s, along with some high school students, spread mulch, weeded the grounds and trimmed shrubs.

“These guys are unbelievable,” said Ruth Stanley, the museum manager. “I’m impressed at how the United Way is extremely organized. The volunteers did a lot of cleaning up and sprucing up.”

After finishing the front of the museum, a group of GE volunteers were in back of the museum spreading mulch there.

“It’s nice to be out of the office on a nice day and doing something good,” said Karen Prevalla, who has participated in the Day of Caring for three years with GE and previously at another workplace.

Museum Executive Director Louise DeMars was happy with the results.

“We’re the gateway to downtown,” she said. “We’re always delighted to have extra help to make the museum the showplace it should be.”