Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, IU Health is continued its tradition of conducting a day of service.
IU Health North and Saxony hospitals had nearly 200 volunteers complete projects between Sept. 7 and 30.
“Something that I really wanted to kind of hit home this year is to have a variety of projects or people working remotely if they didn’t feel comfortable going out into the community, they could just do a project in the comfort of their own home,” IU Health’s Indianapolis Suburban Region community outreach associate Caitlin Vendely said. “Just to have these options for people interested in still volunteering out in the community (was the idea).”
Last year, 206 volunteers participated in the annual Day of Service. Typically, IU Health partners with the Hamilton County Parks and Recreation Dept. for the projects.
“This year, volunteers could mulch, remove invasive species, paint, do park clean-up, spread river rock, but the parks department also had take-home projects volunteers could participate in,” Vendely said. “They could pick up a bag of craft materials and assemble them into a kit for families who visit the Taylor Center (of Natural History) or Cool Creek Nature Center to take home.”
Volunteers also assembled care packages for in-need seniors as well as first aid kits for Mudsock Youth Athletics, a sports league organization in Fishers.
“One of the projects we did as a more COVID-related project is we had volunteers sign up to check in with local seniors in self-isolation and just to check in on them periodically to make sure they have everything the need, keep them company, make sure they aren’t lonely,” Vendely said.
For more, visit iuhealth.org.
