Martinsburg Journal

Hey, it’s all in a good day’s work

We're painting again.

We - the half dozen or so workers at this newspaper who typically participate in Day of Caring -have been doing the painting job for so many years that we're circling around and repainting rooms that we painted initially.

Day of Caring, this year scheduled for Sept. 9, is the annual kickoff to the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle's campaign. Teams of volunteers - actually numbering in the thousands - fan out in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties to perform thousands of dollars worth of work for United Way agencies throughout the community.

We began our painting career six or so years ago at the Bethany House.

It's kind of fun to go back, year after year, talk to the staff, see what's new at the shelter. Community Networks Director Glenda Helman is a gracious hostess who always gets us the materials that we need. She is always effusive about the work that we do, despite the fact that we bill ourselves year after year as "unskilled labor."

She and her staff also always provide a great lunch, one of the great incentives for The Journal's team.

Every year, I wear what I have dubbed my "painting" shorts, all speckled with the gray paint that was used in the dining room that first year. Some of the fun of painting, of course, is getting paint on you, in your hair, on your clothing, under your fingernails. Getting the paint off of you is not so much fun.

It's also pretty hard work. When you're not used to looking up for a couple of hours, or using long extensions on rollers that help you reach the ceilings, those neck and arm muscles let you know about it the following day. I used to tell aerobics students a couple of decades ago that the muscle pain you felt the day after a particularly difficult workout was "good sore." The muscle pain you feel after doing a community service project is "good sore" as well.

In addition to being fun, Day of Caring is also tremendously rewarding. Doing something good for someone else just makes you feel good.

This year, thousands of volunteers will paint walls and picnic tables, build ramps, do weeding in a cemetery, put up "No Parking" signs at Berkeley Senior Services, clean up downtown Martinsburg and Shepherdstown on this year's Day of Caring.

Some of the jobs are difficult, like roof and gutter repair and ramp construction; some are easy, like trash pickup or painting. Let me use the words "unskilled labor" again in place of easy. None of the tasks are really easy; they all represent work that agencies say that they would like to have done on this one day each year.

My favorite project this year may be one at the Children First Development Center in Kearneysville. Folks listed as their project "angel wing repair." Apparently, there is an angel on site that has only one wing that's functional. Fortunately, the Day of Caring committee has found a welder who can apparently fix the angel's wing.

It may be the most unique project I've heard about.

As always, a Mega Food Drive will be running in conjunction with Day of Caring. Non-perishable food collected through the drive will be given to area food pantries. Those interested can drop off food at any bank, beginning immediately, or if someone is volunteering for Day of Caring, he or she can take the food to the work site or the kickoff breakfast, which begins at 7:30 a.m. at War Memorial Park.

For more information, or to volunteer for Day of Caring, contact the United Way office at (304) 596-5529.

You won't be sorry, even when you feel "good sore" the following day.

-Maria Lorensen is editor of The Journal and can be reached at (304) 263-3381, ext. 139, or at mlorensen@journal-news.net