RICHMOND, Va. — Richmonders came out in droves on Saturday to volunteer for four hours at more than 60 sites around the city as part of HandsOn Day.
HandsOn Richmond is an organization that connects more than 11,000 volunteers a year with nonprofits that need them. And on HandsOn Day more than 1,000 volunteers were mobilized for a short period of time during the day, which culminated in a celebration at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery to reward the efforts of volunteers.
“It’s absolutely an event that’s helpful for filling up our pantry,” said Kate Bausman, who manages volunteer services at the Fan Free Clinic. “Food is always a need. Our pantry is open only to our clients and they really rely on it. Everybody gets food monthly, and it’s all donation based.”
The Fan Free Clinic, a nonprofit community clinic in the Fan, was one of the HandsOn Day sites that did not ask volunteers to put time in, but instead asked that items be dropped off for later use.
“Last year we got 1,000 pounds of food, and we’d like to see 1,000 again this year,” said Bausman. By 11 a.m. she had already received 200 pounds of food. One volunteer dropped off 100 pounds alone and her packages included handmade cards penned by her daughter.
“Today I’ve met a lot of people who are volunteering for the very first time, which is awesome, because we’re trying to get more volunteers year after year,” said Ashley Sweatt, a captain for HandsOn Richmond. “And then I also see people who return because they had a good experience and they want to come back and volunteer at a different site.”
A new volunteer, Kumiko Bracewell, said that she had been wanting to volunteer for HandsOn Day for a while and was glad she finally did.
“There’s a really good sense of purpose that you get from doing it,” Bracewell said. “I volunteered for the FeedMore site because I feel for the hungry. I went to VCU, and you see the homeless there, and you know there’s a great need. Normally on Saturday morning I’d just be home, not really doing anything. With this, you’re really doing something.”
And the nonprofits were pleased with the amount of work that got done on Saturday.
“The event went very well for us,” said Virginia Hadley, who works at the front desk at The Doorways, formerly known as Hospital Hospitality House, which provides temporary lodging and other services to hospital patients and their families. “We had a bunch of different volunteer groups come in and they did painting up on the parking deck here, they cleaned up in the alley where we have patients come in, they washed our windows for us. They really helped out a whole lot.”
By Diana DiGangi (Special to WTVR.com)
EDITOR’S NOTE: WTVR.com has partnered with the “iPadJournos” mobile and social media journalism project at VCU’s Richard T. Robertson School of Media and Culture. Students from the project reported the following story.
