“I would just like to thank the community for all their support for this event,” shared Colette Hartzler, executive director of United Way of Mifflin-Juniata. “We appreciate both the agencies who participate — we know their work is vital to make a healthy community and businesses who give up their employees for the day to do this act of kindness!”

Day of Caring projects are focused on nonprofit agencies that typically have more to do than the time or money to complete tasks. Day of Caring is a way for our community to come together with the counties’ non-profit agencies and lend a hand.

Each year, teams from area businesses come together to work on various projects such as painting, organizing, cleaning and outdoor work such as landscaping.

This year projects were done all across the Juniata River Valley region.

Sentinel photo by LIV SUYDAM Larry Cottrill paints the fence at Valley View Retirement Community for Day of Caring.

“We like giving back to the community,” shared Kaitlyn Rhine of Juniata Valley Bank. Her crew of fellow JVB employees worked at Valley View Retirement Community painting handicap blocks, the fence, and pressure washing the back of the Terrace.

Clayton Homes employees spent the day in the community garden in Lewistown, clearing unused plots and covering them with new mulch and cardboards and clearing the walkways of weeds before placing fresh woodchips.

“Our board members just don’t have the time to clean out the unused plots and do the maintenance weeding during the summer that would need to be done, so it means everything to have them come here at the end of the season,” shared Allison Yocum, the plot manager at the Community Garden.

Sentinel photo by LIV SUYDAM Melanie Harshbarger, left, and Danielle Dietrick paint around the light socket in what will be the new board room in the LUMINA Center.

Sentinel photo by LIV SUYDAM Rose Dietz, left, and Mary Gordon pull weeds out of the walk way around the Community Garden in Lewistown.

Sentinel photo by LIV SUYDAM Brad Rapp rakes fresh mulch over an empty plot in the Community Garden in Lewistown.