FAYETTEVILLE -- Marcy McNew laughed in delight when she pulled a big weed with a knot of dirt out of the ground. Her coworkers cheered and took pictures of McNew proudly holding her weed.
About 25 members of the Slim Chickens home office staff Friday descended on the Apple Seeds Teaching Farm in Fayetteville. They brought their tools to prepare Apple Seeds' teaching gardens and orchard for the spring.
And to give back to the community on Live United Day, said Christina Vaughan, senior vice president of operations and training for the restaurant company.
The annual event sponsored by the United Way of Northwest Arkansas involves volunteers from area businesses helping nonprofit organizations across the region, explained Hannah Savage, chief of staff and senior director of community impact and engagement for the local United Way.
Most United Way chapters across the country participate in a Live United Day, also called Day of Caring, but not necessarily on the same day, she said.
Volunteers 0f 23 companies toiled at the sites of 25 nonprofits, Savage said. She reported 234 volunteers committed their time to the community during Friday's Live United Day.
"There's a lot of need in our area, but there's also a lot of resources," Savage said.
"I always tell our volunteers that it might feel like they're just picking up a lot of mundane leaves and sticks," said Liz Sims, senior operations offer for the Magdalene Serenity House in Fayetteville. "But it's so helpful and lets us focus on our residents in the home."
The Serenity House provides transitional care for women coming out of incarceration or in recovery from addiction and trauma, she explained.
"We do the work that normally a nonprofit would have to pay for," said Taylor Townsend, senior manager for taxes at the Fayetteville office of the Hogan Taylor accounting firm.
About 15 employees of the firm worked at the Magdalene Serenity House on Friday to "spring clean" the grounds. They cleaned gutters, cut bamboo, gathered 25 bags of leaves and uncovered a long-forgotten flower garden, Townsend said. They also got to see plants they planted on last year's Live United Day are thriving and growing, he reported.
Savage noted the United Way receives lots of calls throughout the year from corporations that want employees to participate in a team-building exercise and also want to give back to the community.
She said some nonprofit groups that need some help will contact the United Way. She said she has a list of corporations willing and ready.
"The United Way likes to be the matchmaker," Savage said. "I've never had anyone say no."
For the accounting firm, a snake was the exciting find of the day.
"It was a black snake with an orange belly, but it was a baby," Townsend reported.
The Herps of Arkansas website highlights several snakes with that description living in Northwest Arkansas. They all are safe, the website said.
"I think we are blessed with really good jobs because of the community we live in," Townsend said. "We want to give back to that community that serves us.
"And it's good to get outside and away from tax returns."
Apple Seeds' mission is to teach kids from where their food comes, said Mary Thompson, executive director.
Second-graders from West Fork were at the teaching farm on a field trip Friday, running among the volunteers while on a scavenger hunt.
Students got to plant seeds, harvest vegetables, prepare a dip and eat the dip and vegetables, Thompson said. Student Adley Sarris said the cucumber was her favorite.
But many students left the vegetables on their plates.
"We try to get them excited about eating healthy," Thompson said.
"I learned that plants can help us, and we need to help plants," Sarris said. "Plants can feed us, and we can feed them."
Cale Nicholson, the Apple Seeds farm manager, knows the importance of the United Way volunteers and others that help the organization year round.
"Without them, we couldn't run our gardens," Nicholson said. "There's so much to do, and we're thankful for them helping us get the spring cleaning done."
"Without out our volunteers, we wouldn't have as much garden space," Thompson said.
Chris Patterson, vice president of training and development for Slim Chickens, said the firm chose to help Apple Seeds because the nonprofit's work relates to the business of Slim Chickens -- feeding people.
"I'd really like to see all these kids in the restaurant business in 10 years," he said. "We need them."
Madeline Glover (right) and Susan Beard, both employees with Slim Chickens, pull weeds Friday from around fruit trees while volunteering at Apple Seeds Teaching Farm in Fayetteville. Representatives from Slim Chickens spent the morning working at the facility that provides farm-to-table education and food to area school districts. Visit nwaonline.com/photo for todays photo gallery. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Andy Shupe)