Dozens of ParentChild+ graduates will leave their ceremonies with cool prizes courtesy of volunteers who gathered at United Way of King County on May 21 to stuff gift bags for the little ones.

Volunteers assembled more than 100 graduation gift bags for ParentChild+ graduates as part of One Seattle Day of Service. They were among thousands of Seattleites that heeded Mayor Bruce Harrell’s call to give back to their communities through volunteerism.

One Seattle Day of Service involved organizations, small and large businesses, families, friends and individuals all coming together in the spirit of selflessness and paying it forward.

ParentChild+, a national early learning program for developing critical language and early literacy skills and fostering parent-child interaction, has been helping parents and kids for more than 50 years.

Through the program, trained home visitors to go into people’s homes twice a week for two years and model to parents how to engage (through play and reading) to their 2-to-4-year old children so that the parents become the youngster’s first and best teacher. United Way partners with several nonprofit agencies to implement the program in their communities.

We welcomed 16 One Seattle Day of Service volunteers to our Second Avenue offices to learn about United Way work and our ParentChild+.program. Then the volunteers helped stuff gift bags with art supplies and books such as Twenty Yawns by Jane Smiley and Tough Tug by Margaret Read MacDonald and Rob McClurkan. ParentChild+ graduations are slated at partner organizations during May and June.

“It was great to see how excited everyone was to be there and support this year’s ParentChild+ graduates,” said Alexia Klatt United Way Volunteer Engagement Manager, who said about 3,000 people participated in One Seattle Day of Service activities citywide.

One Seattle Day of Service derived from Harrell’s aim to bring the city together through volunteerism to improve the city’s quality of life – something he mentioned prominently on the mayoral campaign trail. City officials offered an added incentive of allowing volunteers to apply their One Seattle Day of Service work toward city Municipal Court fines, up to $50 for three hours.

Many One Seattle Day of Service projects were hosted by the city’s parks and public utilities departments. Volunteer activities included collecting trash, removing graffiti, repairing, weeding, planting, trail repair and tiny home construction.

United Way thanks all those who took part in One Seattle Day of Service. You’re helping to make our city a great place to be.