LIVE UNITED: "Day of Caring" 2008

This was the sign they had posted in the library-the kids had attached it to a floaty as a symbol that we were their "lifesavers."

Every year, the city of Asheville pulls together and particiaptes in the community wide United Way Campaign. The campaign is designed to raise money for the 91 programs that the local non-profits provide to those in need. The goald this year is $6 million. The American Red Cross is a United Way Agency and as many misconceptions would have it, the Red Cross DOES NOT receive government funding to carry out the things we do for the community. Needless to say we are a HUGE supporter of the United Way and play a major role in their campaign annually. Today was the kick-off event and as a way to get people excited about the campaign, the United Way declares a "Day of Caring" throughout the entire city, which is where the supporters and contributors of this campaign come together and participate in volunteering for projects at different locations. These projects range from washing dishes in a school to getting down and dirty with landscaping and building work with Habitat for Humanity. Here at the Red Cross, 8 of us signed up to volunteer at a local elementary school library, which is located within a lower-income part of the city. In this library we helped sort, label, barcode, organize, shelve and enter into a database thousands of books for the kids that attend the school. We helped make it easier for them and their teachers to identify books (that were all donated to the school) according to reading and grade level and as tedious as it may sound, our group could not have felt better about making a difference with the resources that children use to learn and become stronger individuals. We were only there from about 9am-12pm, but I seriously could have stayed there all day. The theme of this year's campaign is: LIVE UNITED - donate, advocate and volunteer. Honestly, with the work that I do day in and day out here at the Red Cross I feel like I live united every day, but today somehow gave me a better appreciation for what we can do to help in our communities by giving back, especially to children - our future!