On Tuesday, Sept. 13, hundreds of volunteers from United Way of the Eastern Panhandle participated in the 22nd annual Day of Caring around the Eastern Panhandle with several job locations in Shepherdstown

The Day of Caring, which kicked off at 7:30 a.m., included volunteer workers in town from Shepherdstown Elementary School’s fifth grade, Rotary Club of Shepherdstown and Hollywood Casino.

The projects of the day for the volunteers from Hollywood Casino, who have been participating in the Day of Caring since 2010, included cleaning up the Shepherdstown Day Care Center.

The Casino crew was in charge of tasks that included painting the parking stops in the Day Care’s parking lot, washing the inside and out of the windows, cleaning window screens and gutters and building bookshelves and cabinet doors.

“Since I’ve been coming here I really think this place has grown and improved a lot,” Laura Gatto, a crewmember from Hollywood Casino, said.

“I think the best part of coming here, for me, is the satisfaction I get from seeing the appreciation of the people here,” Donald Godfrey, a worker from Hollywood Casino who has been participating in the Day of Caring for about 16 years, said.

The fifth grade students from Shepherdstown Elementary School were in charge of cleaning and maintaining the grounds around the Rumsey Monument. The tasks for the students were simple things like re-mulching the park and cleaning up trash.

Leslie Boyd, a fifth grade teacher at Shepherdstown Elementary School, said that the goal for the project was to teach the students how to work together and give back to the community.

“I think this allows for the community to see that the students care about the physical community and that they want to give back to the town,” Boyd said.

Other projects for the Day of Caring included a cleanup of the Shepherdstown- Maryland Bridge by The Rotary Club of Shepherdstown.

For more information on the organization and ways to get involved, visit www.uwayep.org.