WKYC Teams Up With Community To Make A Difference

WKYC Staff helping to "Make A Difference"

A total of 748 volunteers donated 1,671 hours of their time on Saturday at 23 different locations across Northeast Ohio in an effort to make our community a better place.

Volunteers included WKYC staff members and viewers from across our area.

National Make a Difference Day was started by Gannett-owned USA Weekend 20 years ago. This year WKYC joined the company wide effort, encouraging staff and viewers to join in on this national day of giving back.

Five winners even received prizes for their participation. The winners are listed below:

• Susan Jones
• Andrew Brandt
• Shelley Muchnicki
• Nancy Dempsey
• Sonya Pryor-Jones

Main sites included The Cleveland Foodbank, the Akron Regional Foodbank, The Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland, The Salvation Army and Coats for Kids. Volunteers were found at other locations from the Carl & Louis Stokes Academy to the Berea Animal Rescue Fund to libraries, museums and Metroparks across the area.

Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores generously donated hundreds of craft supplies to five Boys and Girls Clubs in Cleveland for volunteers on Make a Difference Day - Oct. 27th. Over 360 youth across the city will be decorating pictures frames with foamie décor and glitter, personalizing their own canvas tote bags with festive fall shapes and making beaded bracelets. Over 30 boxes of supplies were delivered and soon youth ages 6-12 at the Boys and Girls Club will be expressing their creativity thanks to Jo-Ann!

There was an impressive showing of 300 plus volunteers in Nordonia where they turned Make A Difference Day into an day of service for their school district, volunteering at 10 different sites in the community.

If you didn't have a chance to volunteer today, there are volunteer opportunities just about every day of the year.

The Volunteer Center at BVU is Greater Cleveland's resource for recruiting, developing, and organizing volunteers. Since 1993, BVU has been linking volunteers to opportunities that address such issues as homelessness, the environment, crisis support, youth and families, people living with disabilities, seniors and many more.

Funded by the United Way of Greater Cleveland, the Volunteer Center at BVU makes it easy for individuals, schools, businesses and social, civic and faith-based groups to identify volunteer opportunities that meet their skills, interest, location and availability.

Become a BVU volunteer today at  www.bvuvolunteers.org

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