Hundreds pitch in to help on Day of Caring

CDT staff reports

Retired U.S. Marine Deb Baier showed up at the Food Bank of the State College Area Thursday morning after driving a bus load of children to school.

She was ready to help the other members of the Marine Corps League, Nittany Leathernecks detachment, organize, fill food bags and clean. Why?

“Because people need us,” she said.

It was the reason that she and hundreds of other volunteers spent Thursday at more than 100 work sites around the county, from Snow Shoe to Boalsburg, from Port Matilda to Aaronsburg.

As part of the 16th annual PNC Bank United Way Day of Caring, they rolled up their sleeves and spent the day cleaning, painting, building, raking, mulching, sorting -- whatever tasks were most useful to each agency.

For Lois Moyer, that meant scraping ice out of a freezer at the food bank while Karen Johnson and Sally Gamble helped sort food. In the lobby, bins filled with eggplants, red peppers, apples, potatoes and cabbage were ready to be put away.

Many of the 13 Leathernecks helping at the food bank’s storage center at the Nittany Mall, getting it ready for distribution.

Food Bank Executive Director Linda Tataliba said in past years, Day of Caring volunteers have spackled the walls, built storage shelves and cleaned rugs.

“It’s very, very helpful,” she said. “It’s the one time during the course of the year we really get to clean up.”

To read about more Day of Caring efforts, see tomorrow's Centre Daily Times.