Churches Serve Together in TN!

The following article was posted in www.dnj.com, Mufreesboro, TN, on March 30, 2012. Local churches gathered for their Inasmuch event along with the United Way and Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) to serve the community.

UNITED WAY DAYS OF ACTION: Area residents roll up sleeves in community service

Vantrice Whitlock loves to work.

“I’m a farm girl; I’m used to it,” the 57-year-old General Mills employee said as she painted fresh white stripes in the parking lot of the Salvation Army’s Center of Hope in Murfreesboro. “I’m motivated by helping any organization in need. When you think you are helping people, it gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.”

Between Thursday and today, hundreds of volunteers are participating in a community service blitz through United Way’s Days of Action, MTSU Student Government Association’s Big Event, and the downtown Murfreesboro churches’ Operation Inasmuch.

Whitlock was one of a couple dozen General Mills employees who converged on the Salvation Army Friday afternoon. Others removed and replaced tile in the kitchen or repaired playground equipment. Friday morning, a crew from StoneCrest Medical Center in Smyrna cleaned the gymnasium, mopped floors, baseboards and walls, and cleaned the kitchen and the chapel at the Salvation Army.

“Coming here gave me a great understanding of what they need,” said Casey Reese, a 2004 MTSU graduate and director of business and industry at StoneCrest.  She helped clean the janitors’ closet and the chapel.

Lt. Lorraina Crawford called the volunteer efforts “just tremendous.”

“We don’t have the staff to do any of these projects,” Crawford said. ”We don’t have the money to pay for the labor.” Wiser employees  worked Thursday and Friday to clean — inside and out— the Wee Care Day Care for children 6 weeks old to school age.

“It’s a good way to get out and help the community,” explained Candi Carpenter, while organizing arts and crafts supplies.

Rochelle Smith, director of Wee Care, said it means a lot have the volunteers see what the program does for children, and to have the work done.

Local schools, non-profit organizations and parks and recreation sites and facilities are benefiting from the program. Volunteers are working in teams on more than 50 projects, which include general maintenance, painting, delivering meals to individuals in need and landscaping.

“The collaboration with the other programs — the Big Event and Operation Inasmuch — reflects the concept of making a larger impact with a collective effort,” said Kristen Hampton, coordinator of marketing and special events at the local United Way and a key organizer for the event.

“United Way values giving, advocating and volunteering within the community, and this event is a prime example of those values,” she said in a news release.

Organizers expect 600 participants by the end of the three-day event this year, up from 407 in 2011.

—Doug Davis, 615-278-5152

From an April 1, 2012 Editorial in the same online paper

EDITORIAL: Volunteers take action in community

Each Monday, The Daily News Journal says thank you to those making the community a better place.

A huge thank you goes out to hundreds of volunteers who canvassed Rutherford County last week providing help with everything from mopping floors to repairing playground equipment.

Through United Way’s Days of Action, MTSU Student Government Association’s Big Event and the downtown Murfreesboro churches’ Operation Inasmuch, local schools, nonprofit organizations and parks sites got a boost with projects that will help them serve better.

Organizers expected 600 people to participate in the three-day event, an increase of nearly 200 from the previous year.