By Mark Ambrogi
In a flurry of giving back, New Hope Presbyterian Church members and other volunteers will descend on the Indianapolis area for the fourth annual “Day of Caring” on Sept. 20.
Last year, there were 430 volunteers working on 28 projects on the day sponsored by the Fishers church, 12550 Brooks School Rd. Mark Thacker, a deacon of New Hope and team leader of the event, said he expects 450 volunteers working on 31 projects. Three of the projects will be on other days.
“Some projects are inside the church, some are in Fishers and some are in Hamilton County and Marion County,” Thacker said.
The projects include helping out families in need, those who have lost a parent or have a member with cancer and haven’t been able to maintain the upkeep inside and outside.
“We’ll have 50 people who will be packing meal packets for kids (for Thrive360),” Thacker said. “It’s hard to believe but in that four hours they will make 20,000 meal packs.”
Fifty is the largest number of volunteers at one site.
Some of the other projects include hosting a brunch at a homeless shelter at the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen in Indianapolis, cleaning the Ronald McDonald House at Riley Hospital, making soft fleece blankets for the Megan S. Ott Foundation and The Cheer Guild for Riley and assembling bags of food and clothing for delivery to the homeless.
Two Servants at Work groups will construct handicapped wheelchair ramps at homes.
Since the Day of Caring is on Sunday, New Hope will skip its two morning services. Registration starts at 8 a.m. The volunteers then meet at 8:30 a.m. before starting their projects.
“So instead of having worship services, everyone meets and goes off to their site,” Thacker said. “We have a few worship songs, a prayer and a message for 15 minutes and then we send everyone to their respective area.”
Thacker said some of the seniors will pray for the work being done during the Day of Caring for one project. Another project will be providing day care at New Hope for volunteers who need to leave younger children.
“The events spans from infants to people in their 70s, 80s and 90s,” Thacker said.
There will be sign-ups for the project through Sept. 13.
“Or for some reason, if they just want to show up that morning, they can find me and I’ll find a place for them,” Thacker said.
For more information, visit newhopefishers.org/serve/day-of-caring/.
