NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

By: Denise Lineberry

For the 2009 "Peninsula Day of Caring," approximately 200 of NASA Langley’s employees in more than 15 locations stretching across Hampton, Newport News, Williamsburg and Hayes, rolled up their sleeves to help the community.

The Peninsula benefited from approximately 650 volunteers from various companies and organizations who decided to take a day away from work and exchanged it for a day to volunteer.

Cory Trainor volunteers his time landscaping at the Langley Childhood Development Center (LCDC). Credit: NASA/Sean Smith.

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This year, was memorable one – not only for the hundreds of volunteers and the work they were able to accomplish, but also because it was the “National Day of Service and Remembrance,” which was originated by the family members of those who lost loved ones on Sept. 11, 2001.

Services included furniture repair, painting, landscaping, cleaning, data entry and any other odds and ends the volunteers helped to complete. They performed these tasks at locations such as The Salvation Army, LINK of Hampton Roads, Mission Daystar and Gloucester Housing Partnerships. The list of duties and locations goes on and on.

Some volunteers chose to help out at the Langley Childhood Development Center (LCDC). Tracy Siegel, Stephanie Hahn, Ji Su and Cory Trainor were busy cleaning play areas, landscaping, spackling, painting and sanitizing.

Siegel has three children that attend the LCDC, Hahn has a daughter attending and Su has a son there. Helping their children on this day was a big motivational factor, but more motivational was the idea of helping everyone.

"It is everybody’s obligation to do something for the community," Su said. "It’s just one day out of the year."

"We are helping out to make it a better place for everyone," Siegel said.

Langley employees volunteering throughout the peninsula paralleled that helpful attitude.

At the Volunteer Center, a group of employees were busily brainstorming marketing ideas to target teens for Global Youth Service Day in April of 2010.

Patty Quesenberry, a special events coordinator for the Volunteer Center, explained that it serves as a central connecting agency for peninsula volunteers.

"A 'Day of Caring' is the single largest volunteer activity that the center has going," said Quesenberry. "I don’t know what we would do without them [Langley volunteers]."

A "Day of Caring" volunteers at the Virginia Living Museum. From left to right: Crystal Kellam, Lana Hicks-Olson, Betsy Hughes, Kathlyn Baker and Carl Gerhold. Credit: NASA/Sean Smith.

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At the Virginia Living Museum (VLM), Langley volunteers were mulching, de-weeding and planting. Many of the volunteers at that location were veterans to a "Day of Caring" and had volunteered at places such Peninsula READS and the Red Cross.

Crystal Kellam and Carl Gerhold were at the VLM to document the volunteer work. Kathlyn Baker, who spent the morning landscaping at the VLM, enjoys being a volunteer. She also volunteers as an interpreter at Chippoke State Park.

At Arc of the Virginia Peninsula, volunteers organized donations and painted. At the YMCA in Newport News, volunteers painted the indoor gym and benches. At the Girl Scout Council of the Colonial Coast, volunteers painted, installed benches and cleared out trails.

For many employees, the "Day of Caring" is a way for them to make a lasting impact on the Peninsula community. It allows them to be a part of a nationwide day of volunteer-powered positive change.


 
NASA Langley Research Center
Managing Editor: Jim Hodges
Executive Editor and Responsible NASA Official: H. Keith Henry
Editor and Curator: Denise Lineberry