WILTON — Volunteers with the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area’s Days of Caring worked inside and out Tuesday preparing the Western Maine Expo on Weld Road for this weekend’s Wilton Blueberry Festival.
Once again, most festival entertainment and crafters will set up in the space formerly used by Bass Shoe, festival organizer Shannon Smith said. Last year, they used the gymnasium at Academy Hill School but had previously set up at the Expo building.
Many hands make lighter work, especially when cleaning a building that covers more than an acre, she said.
When Nancy Teel, volunteer center coordinator, for the United Way offered to organize volunteers to clean Tuesday and then help man the welcome booth this weekend, Smith was appreciative.
This opportunity is just one of several planned, making last year’s Day of Caring into Days of Caring this year and spreading them over July, August and September.
“It’s making a larger impact with smaller bites,” Teel said Tuesday as she stopped sweeping sand from the space allotted for handicap parking.
Volunteers from Barclay’s, a call center located at the site, Wilton Boy Scouts, North Parish Housing visiting ministry groups, and others swept paint chips dropped from the ceiling, mopped and cleaned at the center and two sites downtown along Saturday’s festival parade route.
Volunteers have already helped this month at LEAP’s Stone Soup Gardens in Farmington and last Friday at Farmington’s Summer Fest.
They will work at Titcomb Ski Area in August and on a Synergy Concert held there by the United Way in September. Volunteers are offered reduced prices on the concert, Stacie Bourassa of the UW said.
Other planned work includes helping the United Methodist Economic Ministry in Salem, the Rural Community Action Ministry in Livermore/Livermore Falls and building interior storm window panels during the Community Energy Challenge, all in September.
“Volunteers are such an important part of the community,” Teel said.
Last year during one Day of Caring, the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area put 75 volunteers to work on projects around Farmington and Wilton. The volunteers contributed over $7,500 in in-kind hours. This year they spread it out, covering several days and opportunities for volunteering over the summer and early fall, according to the United Way website.
For more information or to sign up and participate in a Days of Caring event, contact Teel at 778-5048 or nancyteel@uwtva.org
abryant@sunjournal.com
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- Jill Robinson of Farmington volunteers for Days of Caring by the Tri-Valley Area by mopping the cement floor at the Western Maine Expo in Wilton on Tuesday. The cleaning is in preparation for the entertainment and crafters expected there this weekend for the Wilton Blueberry Festival.
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- Jill Robinson of Farmington volunteers for Days of Caring by the Tri-Valley Area by mopping the cement floor at the Western Maine Expo in Wilton on Tuesday. The cleaning is in preparation for the entertainment and crafters expected there this weekend for the Wilton Blueberry Festival.
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- Gregg Toothaker of Wilton sweeps latex paint chips brushed from the metal ceiling of the Western Maine Expo on Tuesday as the site is prepared for this weekend’s Wilton Blueberry Festival. Volunteers for the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area’s Days of Caring performed a variety of tasks in and around the acre-plus sized building.
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- Stacie Bourassa from the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area cleans an outside area at the Western Maine Expo on Tuesday in preparation for this weekend’s Blueberry Festival in Wilton. Several volunteers swept, mopped and cleaned as part of the United Way’s Days of Caring.
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