Cindy Jansen of Western Hills, Barbara Dickerson of Oakley, Linda Muth of Union Township and co-chair of Rotary Do Days, and Solomon Davis of Clifton were part of the Rotary Do Days volunteer kitchen staff at Shelterhouse Cincinnati for women in Mt. Auburn. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.

Cindy Jansen of Western Hills, Barbara Dickerson of Oakley, Linda Muth of Union Township and co-chair of Rotary Do Days, and Solomon Davis of Clifton were part of the Rotary Do Days volunteer kitchen staff at Shelterhouse Cincinnati for women in Mt. Auburn. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.

<p>Nancy Reisz of North Bend and Janet Burns of Eastgate stuffed envelopes at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.</p>

Nancy Reisz of North Bend and Janet Burns of Eastgate stuffed envelopes at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.
<p>Cincinnati firefighter recruits cleared invasive honeysuckle for the Mill Creek Alliance. From left, they are Dion Schierloh of Mt. Healthy, Cameron Tuck of Westwood, Mack Ogletree of Lockland, and Masai Leigh of Milford. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.</p>

Cincinnati firefighter recruits cleared invasive honeysuckle for the Mill Creek Alliance. From left, they are Dion Schierloh of Mt. Healthy, Cameron Tuck of Westwood, Mack Ogletree of Lockland, and Masai Leigh of Milford. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.
<p>Heather Mardis of Taylor Mill, KY, helped to paint and clear trails at the Rotary’s Camp Allyn in Batavia, which provides year-round activities for people with disabilities. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.</p>

Heather Mardis of Taylor Mill, KY, helped to paint and clear trails at the Rotary’s Camp Allyn in Batavia, which provides year-round activities for people with disabilities. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.
<p>Volunteers from Truepoint Wealth Counsel sorted winter coats at St. Vincent DePaul in Erlanger, Ky. From left, they are Kyle Dodson of Dayton, Ky., Braden Lieungh of Mt. Lookout, John Evans of Mason and Chris Carleton of Loveland. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.</p>

Volunteers from Truepoint Wealth Counsel sorted winter coats at St. Vincent DePaul in Erlanger, Ky. From left, they are Kyle Dodson of Dayton, Ky., Braden Lieungh of Mt. Lookout, John Evans of Mason and Chris Carleton of Loveland. Photo courtesy Rotary Club of Cincinnati.

The Rotary Club of Cincinnati rallied more than 500 volunteers from across Greater Cincinnati for the second annual Rotary Do Days – a massive three-day service blitz that provided more than 1500 hours of free labor to 34 non-profit agencies in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Co-chair Linda Muth of Union Township called it a marvel of logistics and heart, as volunteers served meals in homeless shelters, cut brush on a muddy creek bank, built tables, packed school supplies, painted walls, packaged meals for hungry families and stuffed envelopes over the last weekend in October.

At the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Janet Burns of Eastgate joined 14 fellow volunteers to stuff envelopes for a direct mail campaign. Muth joined University of Cincinnati students from the Rotaract Club to serve meals at the Shelterhouse Cincinnati center for homeless women. Rotaract is a special Rotary group for students.

At Camp Allyn in Batavia, more than 20 volunteers painted buildings and cleared trails at the 100-acre camp and activity center for people with disabilities.

Bennett Kottler, director of restoration projects for the Mill Creek Alliance, welcomed 36 firefighters and firefighter recruits to an overgrown section of the Mill Creek in Evendale. “We’re thrilled to have these hearty, can-do individuals to take down invasive honeysuckle that we have never had the chance to remove,” said Kottler, of Oakley. “We have four-and-a-half paid employees. Without volunteers, we couldn’t get this kind of work done. The Rotary made this happen,” said Kottler

More than 300 of the volunteers were corporate work teams, like the 81 volunteers from Truepoint Wealth Counsel who spread out to help five non-profits. Others, like P&G retirees Ann Bailey of Indian Hill and Rosella Covington of Anderson Township, signed on as individual volunteers.

“No matter what your skill level or physical capabilities, if you wanted to volunteer, there was a place for you,” Muth said.

Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval launched the event with a proclamation, and donned an apron and hair net to help package 12,000 non-perishable breakfasts to be distributed to school children and hungry families through UC Health and the Sam Hubbard Foundation.

Rotary Do Days is the Rotary Club of Cincinnati’s signature service project, reflecting the Rotary’s motto of “Service Above Self,” said Muth, who co-chaired the event with Kelly Mahan of Mt. Adams and Kelly Collison of Sycamore Township. The goal was to impact local non-profits by making volunteering easy. The Rotary organized a variety of volunteer projects ranging from two to several hours. Each volunteer site had a Rotary Ambassador who oversaw everything from parking to sign-in sheets to snacks. The Rotary Club worked with CincinnatiCares.org – the on-line volunteer matching service, to recruit and pair volunteers with community needs. For more information: www.cincinnatirotary.org.