Partnership for Children starts 'Day of Caring' early
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on August 2, 2012 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/TROY HERRING
Kim Mahone of WAGES reads to a group of children at Mount Olive Kiddie Kollege on Wednesday as part of The Partnership for Children of Wayne County's "Day of Caring" event. Friday marks the annual United Wayne Day of Caring, sponsored by the United Way.
The Partnership for Children of Wayne County started caring early this year.
The annual event sponsored by the local United Way -- United Wayne's Day of Caring, which encourages volunteer opportunities in the community -- is actually Friday.
But the Partnership offices are closed that day, so staff pooled their resources and launched their effort Wednesday.
"We have reached out to all of the child care facilities that we work with, asked if they want to have volunteers from the community to come read," explained Whitney Jansta, community services coordinator for the Partnership.
She said 19 different child care locations across the county responded, hosting the literacy events.
They also had a "wonderful response" from volunteer readers.
Sixty-two people -- including parents, retirees and representatives from the school system, Wayne Community College, the city of Goldsboro and WATCH -- participated in the all-day event.
"Some people are doing things as big as dressing up and reading a story of doing a fingerplay, or just reading a story," Mrs. Jansta said. "The whole idea is to read (and) children succeed."
As an added incentive, United Wayne also announced a bit of competition for participants in the Day of Caring event.
Three mini-grants, totaling $2,500, will be awarded to those creating the most activity on the Volunteer Wayne website. Grants of $1,000 each will be given to the agency with the most online fans and for getting the most response to its needs, while a $500 grant will go to agency with the second most fans.
"We're trying to receive a United Way challenge grant to buy more books to put into the child care facilities," Mrs. Jansta said. "We're trying to get the most fans and most responses to our project."
The mini-grant challenge ran through the month of July, with results to be announced.
For a list of other events going on in the community Friday, and future dates where volunteers are needed, visit the United Wayne website, unitedwayne.galaxydigital.com, and click on "Events."