OGDEN -- Mary Gomez looked at the paint being applied to her home Wednesday morning and pronounced herself satisfied.
"I've lived in this house since 1972, and I'm really happy about this," she said. "It's just great. It really needed a paint job."
Gomez, 83, was the beneficiary of the kindness of Riverdale Walmart employees who volunteered to work at her home, at 3128 Adams Ave. They were among hundreds of Top of Utah volunteers who took part in United Way's Day of Caring.
Volunteers from local businesses paired up with nonprofit organizations in providing service projects to help better the community.
"We come into businesses that want to do charitable things," said Zebulon Williams, communications and development manager for United Way of Northern Utah. "We are in the middle of businesses and nonprofits, an intermediate between the two."
Williams said the Day of Caring connects organizations and businesses across the nation on the same day to help make a huge impact on communities.
"It's all over," Williams said. "That's my favorite thing about it. We do our part, and it's part of a worldwide movement."
Other companies worked on 12 other projects, including reading to inner-city children at the YMCA and painting a children's room in the Family Support Center.
Workers from the Bank of Utah helped sort and rearrange a food storage area at the Marshall White Center for the Boys and Girls Club.
"We are trying to make an area that makes sense and is safe," said Mac McCullough, Ogden area director for the Boys and Girls Club.
McCullough said the small room that volunteers worked to clean out and rearrange Wednesday is filled with donated goods to feed children every day as part of their after-school program. He said having the volunteers assisting as part of the Day of Caring is helpful to the organization.
"Volunteers are a necessity for the Boys and Girls Club," he said. "It helps to fill the gaps. It's a necessity. We never have enough."
At Gomez's home, about 15 Walmart employees gathered at 8 a.m. to begin scraping old paint and taping windows before opening cans of green and white paint.
"We are really excited about doing this project today," said Walmart co-manager Josh Bambrough. "We enjoy getting out into the community and helping others. It's a great way for us to pay back the community for being so good to us."
"We've supplied all of the materials for the job," said Katherine Barkdull, training coordinator at the store. "Mary said she wanted the house painted white with basil trim around the windows, so that's what we're going to do. She's really a sweet lady and has been out to talk to us already this morning."
Volunteers Linda Rose and Oravanh Bowaphaseuth, employees with the Bank of Utah, said they were both first-time volunteers for the Day of Caring. They said the opportunity allowed them to learn more about both the Marshall White Center and the Boys and Girls Club.
"I think it feels good," Rose said. "You have a better understanding about what they do and understand how they run."
The service project also gave them a life lesson.
"You realize the things you take for granted," Bowaphaseuth said.
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