A variety of locations within Jefferson and Berkeley counties were recipients of volunteer assistance during the United Way’s annual Day of Caring on Tuesday.

Volunteers did everything from paint to weed garden beds for businesses, daycares, parks and other entities selected by United Way staffers to receive help. Cleanup of area parks took place in both counties as Berkeley and Jefferson parks and recreation departments reaped the benefits of much hard work.

Approximately 90 children from Shepherdstown Elementary worked at Cullison Park and the Rumsey monument to participate in United Way’s Day of Caring. The students mulched walkways, cleaned up trash and pulled weeds. The students participate every year.

“This is a great opportunity for us to help and have a ‘walking field trip’,” said teacher Leslie Boyd. “It’s a good thing for us as a community school. Not all schools get to do that.”

At Shepherdstown Day Care, a group from Hollywood Casino volunteered their time to wash windows inside and out. They also spent a great deal of time cleaning playground equipment, toys, and sifting the sandbox.

The casino volunteers built a music wall at the day care, which will have wind chimes and a washboard for the kids to experiment with different musical sounds.

The Shepherdstown Rotary Club worked at the Shepherdstown library cleaning, painting, and building new benches at the building entrance.

In conjunction with the Day of Caring, United Way’s Emerging Young Leaders (EYL) program organized the Mega Food Drive coordinated by Volunteer EYL Chairman Matt Stickel. The drive, designed to collect non-perishable food for area food pantries was held in the weeks leading up to Day of Caring starting in August.