More than 2,000 volunteers spent Wednesday working on close to 150 different projects in the Quad Cities as part of United Way Day of Caring. The projects ranged from painting doors to improving neighborhood parks.
Brick by brick, 10 volunteers and three city workers built a retaining wall at Ridgeview Playground in Davenport.
"We went through all the list and said hey it's a park, it's a playground, it's manual labor--that's fun,” said volunteer Miles Musick.
The dripping of sweat, the digging of dirt, the laying of 450 bricks, was worth it for the volunteers.
"Everybody goes to the park, everybody can enjoy it and hopefully something like a retaining wall will be here a long time from now,” said Musick.
"This is one of those opportunities that gives back to helping kids as well and just seeing them out and playing is a great feeling,” said volunteer Matt Voss.
The ten volunteers at Ridgeview Playground were just a small chunk of the more than 2,000 volunteers helping with close to 150 projects.
"We've got folks that are reading to kids, people that are handing out kindergarten readiness kits,” said United Way of the Quad Cities Area President Scott Crane.
And there were painters, painting 42 doors at the Salvation Army Family Service Center in Davenport.
"This is gonna help our clients feel better every day when they walk out their door,” said Holly Nomura, Development Director.
"I think everyone here hopes that we're making something a little bit better," said volunteer Barb Westerdale.
On this Day of Caring, helping the community, paint stroke by paint stroke, brick by brick.
"It makes the whole area more welcoming and exciting for our families to come out and enjoy themselves and be proud to be in the Quad Cities area,” said Voss.
According to United Way of the Quad Cities Area, the number of volunteers this year increased 23% from last year.
Click here to visit the United Way of Quad Cities Area website.