To care for someone can have multiple meanings. Whether it means to provide necessary needs for someone such as health, welfare or maintenance or to simply display feelings of kindness.

Around 900 volunteers joined forces Thursday for the 28th annual Jackson County United Way’s Day of Caring to spend time caring for multiple people, places and organizations.

With more than 100 projects to complete, United Way Engagement Director Emily Engelking said this has been one of the biggest turnouts over the past four years she has organized it.

“This is really exciting,” she said. “We have so many great groups coming back and also some new ones.”

In 1996, Day of Caring was established to offer projects to United Way partner agencies and other non-profits in Jackson County. It expands agency funding and offers repairs, construction and client services with donations and time.

Volunteers set aside time in their day to help others all over Jackson County.

To address community needs, volunteers accomplish projects such as painting, landscaping, pressure washing, flower planting and various other tasks.

Two kickoffs were held early Thursday morning, one at Heritage Park in Brownstown and the second at Crossroads Community Park in Seymour, where volunteers gathered to pick up T-shirts, work supplies, water and ice and ask last-minute questions. Doughnuts and coffee also were served to the volunteers before they headed off to their worksites.

At Crossroads Community Park, Chad Keithley, chairman for the Day of Caring committee, read a proclamation on behalf of Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson declaring May 9, 2024, as Jackson County United Way’s 28th annual Day of Caring.

“No matter how many times we plan this there is always something new every year,” Engelking said. “We couldn’t do this without our great team, committee, staff and of course our volunteers.”

Cathy Terry and Ashley Clark with Shoe Sensation in Seymour enjoyed some doughnuts before heading off to North O’Brien Street to clean some flower beds for their first-time volunteering for Day of Caring.

“We are looking forward to helping and hanging out,” Terry said.

Out at Hamacher Hall in Crothersville, six Cummins Inc. employees spent their day sprucing up the outside of the heritage and culture center while enjoying each other’s company. The group worked together to scrape old paint off the wooden railing for new paint to take its place, potted new plants around the building and spread mulch around the property.

Scott Nabors said last year he remembers lifting huge boulders as part of a project until his story was comedically cut short by his friend, Kathy Hohenstreiter, reminding him they were not boulders, but small rocks.

“It’s nice that we get to help out the community for the day, but I also get to boss him (Scott) around for the day,” Hohenstreiter said.

Sandy Law, who is a member of the Crothersville Historical and Cultural Arts Association, stopped by to check on their progress.

“I am glad they came,” she said.

A team from The Point worked at 9 a.m. on a Seymour-based Day of Caring project, doing yard work at a home off of State Road 11. Part of the work included cleaning gutters, washing windows on the outside, landscaping and cleaning up the branches and debris.

It was Pastor Jon Gibson’s first time out for Day of Caring, having joined The Point family in 2023.

“Day of Caring “makes for a stronger community,”” he said.

Gibson said he was glad to be a part of the cause and it felt great to have a shared sense of trust between the ones who requested the projects and the groups helping.

Don Heagle has participated in lending a helping hand for Day of Caring for two or three years at different times and places. He has been a member of The Point since around 1984.

With shovel in hand, he stuck it into the front yard, digging up and pulling out weeds alongside Shelly Stein.

“It’s something that needs to be done,” Heagle said.

He loves to help people and he said the houseowner of this particular project, Kathy Spall, really deserves it because of how much of a hard worker she is.

Another volunteer, Renee Bogard, has been contributing to Day of Caring for five years. For the projects, The Point gets to work with different groups in the church to accomplish their goal, which is one personal highlight of hers.

“Love working with our teens,” Bogard said.

Two of these teens were Gibson’s daughters, Mackenzie and Marlee Gibson. The daughters followed their father’s lead, making sure the shrubs were round and snipping away at stray branches.

The advanced construction class from Brownstown Central High School spent Thursday completing a Day of Caring project at a Brownstown family’s home on State Road 58 just west of State Road 135. The project involved demolishing a porch and then rebuilding it

Junior Gavin Weddle said he thought the idea of the class tackling the project was a great thing because it was helping a family in the community out.

Senior Cole Brelage agreed.

“It’s really good for the community and the family,” he said. “They needed some help, and we could do it.”

Jamey Wilson, who teaches the advanced construction class at Brownstown Central, said Superintendent Tim Taylor talked to him about the idea of class taking on a project and the United Way was able to find one that suited the class’s needs.

“It’s kind of close to Brownstown and we could get it done in a day,” Wilson said. “Luckily they found something that’s right up our alley.”

The class of four spent the day tearing the existing wooden porch apart and replacing it with a new one.

“That same way that it was,” Wilson said.

He said the class, which was just put in place at the beginning of this school year, has completed a few other projects including adding a lean to a pole barn and helping remodel a garage in Brownstown with siding, electrical and other items.

He said the class completes those kinds of projects and any money donated by the property owner goes back to the class.

“Right now, we are in the process of remodeling a fair booth for the school at the fairgrounds,” Wilson said. “And we have a couple of other projects lined up that we aren’t going to get to before the end of the school year. We will do them in the fall.”

Wilson said he spent this first year in advanced construction class learning from his students as much as they have learned from him.

“This is just another project for them to go out and get some real-world experience,” he said of the Day of Caring project.

Weddle said his dad got him interested in the construction trade.

“He’s being doing construction trades for many years, but he switched over and got out of it,” he said. “

“I thought I would try it out and see if I liked it. I figure it’s a good trade to have. Not many people are doing construction.”

Brelage said his dad operates a small shop for projects and that sparked his interest in learning more about construction.

Over at the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge, teen volunteers from the Achievers 4-H Club of the Juntos 4-H Program spent their Day of Caring helping clear invasive plants, doing light landscaping and cleanup work around the visitors center and conducting a refuge-wide litter pickup.

Purdue Extension 4-H Youth Development launched the Juntos 4-H Program in 2020 with the goal of providing Latino students in eighth through 12th grade and their parents with knowledge, skills and resources to prevent youth from dropping out of school and to encourage families to work together to gain access to college. Juntos 4-H is currently being implemented in eight Indiana counties besides Jackson.

Juntos 4-H program members Jairo Pena, Jared Martinez-Salas, Brandon Martinez-Salas, Tony Nicolas, Andres Miguel and Venedito Baltazar, supervised by Wildlife Biologist Shannon Winks, helped clear a number of invasive plants at Muscatatuck — including autumn olive and multiflora rose.

Park Ranger Donna Stanley described the intentional introduction of both plants to the United States as a “big mistake.”

The multiflora rose was brought from overseas to the United States and widely planted across the Midwest because it was thought to be a “wonderful breeding shrub,” Stanley said.

“They didn’t realize that it would spread everywhere,” she said. “The birds ate the berries and then spread the berries everywhere. It’s just covering up the countryside.”

Stanley said many invasive plants like autumn olive and multiflora rose were brought over purposefully; however, once they are in an area with no natural predators or controls, they “just go wild.”

“[Invasive plants] spread out and smother everything else,” Stanley said. “They take away the food of our native wildlife, especially birds and insects … The problem with invasive plants is that there are just so many of them and we’re finding more all the time.”

While one group of 4-H students helped clear invasive plants, another group was on the other side of the refuge planting wildflower plugs in a big expanse of grassland, all before picking up litter and doing light landscaping and cleanup work around the visitor’s center.

Juntos 4-H advisor Dr. Iveth Vasquez said the student members of the Achievers 4-H Club had previously told her at a meeting they specifically wanted to do a project at Muscatatuck and by coincidence they were assigned to go to the refuge on Thursday.

“We’re so glad they came out today,” Stanley said. “We love to have youth groups help out at the refuge and 4-H is a wonderful program.”

Tribune reporters Erika Malone, Jared Reedy and Chey Smith contributed to this story.