From October 6–10, 300 volunteers rolled up their sleeves across our four-county region for the fifth annual Community Impact Week, United Way of the Columbia-Willamette’s signature week of service, organized through Hands On Greater Portland. Together, they contributed 773 hours of service across 31 projects with local nonprofits, packing food boxes, sorting donations, and prepping books and school supplies.
The impact went beyond checking projects off a list. Volunteer feedback showed how fulfilling the experience was, and how much it mattered to connect with others while giving back. Every project helped build a stronger, healthier, and more connected community, for the organizations we served and the volunteers who showed up.
“We know that doing good makes us feel good, and we are really excited that people in our community have come out to help us do this work,” said Kelly Olague, President & CEO of United Way of the Columbia-Willamette.
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Why it Matters:
For many of our nonprofit partners, volunteers aren’t extra help. They’re how the work gets done. At Centro Cultural, where funding cuts have forced staff reductions, volunteers are filling the gap. “This month we did almost 11,000 people fed through this one small location with two full-time employees and an army of volunteers,” said Jason. “There’s really no other way we’d be able to do it.”
Renee, volunteer coordinator at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, sees the same thing. “Sometimes we have more volunteers than staff in our building,” she said. Volunteer support, she explained, increases the ReStore’s ability to fundraise for Habitat’s home-building mission “pretty exponentially.”
Watch The Recap:
Project Highlights:
Sunshine Division
At Sunshine Division, nearly 30 volunteers formed an assembly line with one goal: build 648 food boxes for the organization’s home delivery program, which brings around 500 boxes of food to neighbors’ doorsteps each week. For a privately funded organization, that kind of help is essential. “We are privately funded with a staff of under 30 and serve over 1,000 people a week,” said Jennifer Singleton, Sunshine Division’s volunteer coordinator, “so we definitely need volunteers to make that happen and get food into the community.”
Children’s Book Bank
At Children’s Book Bank, volunteers cleaned, repaired, and sorted donated books so they’re ready to go home with kids who need them most. Every book they touched helps a child build a home library of their own, and a love of reading that can last a lifetime. We had great volunteers from Portland Community College who joined us for this project!
Schoolhouse Supplies
At Schoolhouse Supplies, volunteers sorted and stocked donated supplies to help keep classrooms across the region equipped. Schoolhouse Supplies provides free school supplies to teachers and students, so students can show up ready to learn without families or educators paying out of pocket.