Allie Mosley, Juliette Johnson, Alex York, Saundra Ours, Jon Dek [Photo: Kaila Jones]

An early-morning shower gave way to a beautiful rainbow as participants in the United Way of Indian River County’s annual Day of Caring gathered Saturday at the Vero Beach High School Citrus Bowl. The rainbow was a fitting symbol of the organization’s Live United dictum and was the perfect way to start a day which saw volunteers spreading out across the county to help others.

“Today we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary of this special community event,” said Michael Kint, UWIRC CEO. “Not only are we celebrating this milestone of our Day of Caring, but today is also National Do Something Nice Day.”

He added that about 1,200 volunteers would be working at roughly 60 projects at local nonprofits, schools and churches.

“On behalf of all those organizations I just want to say thank you,” said Kint, before introducing the 2019-2020 campaign co-chairs, cousins Bob Schlitt and Jeff Schlitt of Schlitt Services, both longtime supporters of the United Way.

“With our size and speed, this is as close as we ever came to being on a football field,” joked Jeff Schlitt.

The two recognized Publix for their year-round support of United Way, including as the major sponsor for the event, and noted the generous contributions of Torchbearers, who commit corporate and employee donations before the campaign even begins, and Elite Sponsors, who contribute dollars to underwrite campaign costs.

“The theme for this year’s campaign is ‘Imagine.’ If you think about it, a lot of great things happen when people use the power of imagination,” said Jeff Schlitt.

He asked people to imagine an Indian River County where lower-income families become more financially stable, 90 percent of third-graders perform at grade level and the overall health of all residents is improved, adding, “Imagine all of this becoming a reality right here in our community, because all of this is possible.”

“Through partnerships with local nonprofits, agencies and organizations that do some truly amazing work, we can turn these goals, this imagination, into reality, creating the best Indian River County for all of us,” said Bob Schlitt.

“Today we have students here from around the county, assembling weekend snack packs that will be distributed to our students who need some extra food during the weekends when they are not in school,” said Pam Dampier, School District of Indian River County assistant superintendent. “I am so proud of our students and their dedication and efforts to do good for their peers and for the community of Indian River County.”