A DAY OF CARING

Tears began to well in Tim Knight’s eyes Tuesday morning when asked why he was there — standing on a hillside in south Eugene, a tool belt strapped around his waist and a hammer in his hand — instead of doing his usual morning routine as a telecommunications technician at the Lane Council of Governments.

“I harken back to my folks,” said Knight, working with other LCOG volunteers to build a large osprey enclosure at the Cascades Raptor Center. “They were very big on community things. It’s just something that’s in my genes.”

In explaining his emotions, Knight said his father died recently in Bishop, Calif., at age 87 and, well, holding a hammer in his hand and building something for someone else just reminded him of his dad, a cabinetmaker in the Los Angeles area who built his own home.

Knight and about two dozen co-workers were at the raptor center, a nonprofit nature center and wildlife hospital for birds of prey, for the second year in a row as part of United Way of Lane County’s annual Days of Caring.

A record number of employees, nearly 1,200 from businesses and organizations all over Lane County, were busy all day doing various projects for the agency’s 17th annual Days of Caring, an event that kicks off its annual fundraising campaign by showing what volunteer spirit can do.

That’s almost double the number of employees and volunteers who signed up last year. They’ll be out again in force today during the two-day event, providing much-needed help to 33 nonprofit agencies in Lane County.

“I think people really feel the compulsion to help in these tough times,” said Cheryl Crumbley, a United Way of Lane County spokeswoman. Doing something “tangible,” rather than just giving money, really resonates with people, she said.

What began in 1994 as “Day of Caring” eventually turned into a two-day event about a decade ago, based on need and more and more volunteers stepping up, Crumbley said. Some projects will even stretch beyond today, she said.

“It’s months’ worth of work in a day or so,” said Louise Shimmel, executive director of the Cascades Raptor Center. “We love them.”

Shimmel said volunteers helped with myriad various projects Tuesday, from sanding and refinishing cabinets for the center’s clinic, to building a giant osprey cage to moving and expanding an owl cage.

“The community really benefits as well, because this is something they all see,” Shimmel said. “And the birds love it.”

Employees from Symantec also volunteered at the raptor center Tuesday, and employees from Northwest Community Credit Union, Pentagon Federal Credit Union and Isler CPA will be there today, Shimmel said.

Other projects include Eugene School Board members building a garden shed and garden beds at Cesar Chavez Elementary School; International Paper employees painting the bingo hall at Arc of Lane County in Springfield; seniors from the Campbell Senior Center in Eugene painting fences and building a bulletin board with wine corks at Community Sharing in Cottage Grove; and Eugene Water & Electric Board employees cleaning up the playground equipment at Birth to Three.

Twenty percent of EWEB’s work force participated in Days of Caring at a variety of sites, Crumbley said.

For LCOG’s Paula Taylor, the experience is always rewarding.

“It’s just awesome,” said Taylor, who has participated in several Days of Caring and was sanding donated cabinets on Tuesday. “And they’re so grateful,” she said of the various nonprofit agencies for whom she has volunteered.

“It’s just a different way of seeing these different service providers. And it’s a way of giving back, because they give a lot to the community.”