More than 1,500 volunteers with the United Way of Southwest Michigan fanned out across Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties on Thursday to rake leaves for seniors as part of the annual Rake a Difference event.
The United Way says it had 148 teams serving 316 households for the day. Among the volunteers was Emily Robertson with the Huntington Bank team. We caught up with her at a home in Benton Harbor and she told us this was her tenth year doing Rake a Difference. So, why does she do it?
“I just have a feeling that you should,” Robertson said. “If you can, you should. This community I live in, I work in, these are my neighbors and they can’t get out themselves. It’s super important outside of work that just to give back as much as you can.”
Robertson said her team had six houses to do for the day, and this was house number four. And there were plenty of leaves to rake.
“So far, up to 80 bags without this house. Our first house had 67 bags alone. So we’re killing it. It’s great.”
The idea behind Rake a Difference is to help those seniors who might have a little trouble keeping up their yards this time year stay in their homes comfortably.
They could always use more volunteers as the United Way tells us about 58 seniors who applied were still on the waiting list for the day. For anyone interested in helping, Rake a Difference will return next November.
