SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. – Over the past three years, volunteers from Mount Holyoke College have carried out repairs and improvements at dozens of nonprofit agencies in the Pioneer Valley during the College's annual Day of Giving. On Friday, October 3, staff, faculty, and student volunteers will again shoulder their tools and fan out across the valley, labor and donated materials for projects at fifteen sites.

The daylong event, sponsored by the College’s Facilities Management department and Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, drew 43 enthusiastic Facilities Management workers in its first year, and has since grown each year since. Expanded two years ago to include staff, faculty, and students, and more than 75 members of the community have taken part during the past two years. College employees receive their regular pay for the day of work, and all volunteers are provided with transportation to and from the work sites.

Lauren Turner, the College's director of human resources and one of the organizers of the event, said that the volunteer workers have carried out more than $50,000 worth of projects over the past three years. The work has ranged from painting to plumbing repair to brush clearing and landscaping. In one case last year, Turner said, a work crew arrived to paint walls and clean a carpet at a day-care center, and ended up replacing the carpet with leftover carpeting from another project. "These volunteers saw how they had the power to help, and they went above and beyond," she said.

"This gives Mount Holyoke a way to give back to the community," Turner said. "It's a way to leverage our labor force to be of assistance to our neighbors. I have no doubt in my mind that people who return from the Day of Giving feel a tremendous amount of reward and satisfaction. I think it’s also an incentive for more volunteerism. It raises your awareness of the needs of our community organizations.”

Organizations must apply to take part in the Day of Giving. Among those selected this year are the Providence Ministries for the Needy, several the Valley Opportunity Council programs, Jericho House, Western Massachusetts Elder Care, Girls Inc., the Girl Scout Council of Western Massachusetts, the Holyoke Youth Baseball League, and the South Hadley Historical Society.

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