Giving a donation of time

Ray McClane works two part-time jobs and attends the College of Charleston, but she found time Thursday to volunteer during the United Way's ninth annual Day of Caring.

With a green paint smear on her face, she climbed a ladder to paint the foyer at Goodwin Elementary School on Dorchester Road.

It was one of hundreds of projects around the Lowcountry in which more than 5,000 volunteers from more than 200 companies, service organizations and nonprofit agencies painted, landscaped, cleaned, built and rehabilitated areas in need.

Per capita, local United Way officials call it the largest Day of Caring project in the nation, based on the number of volunteers and the contribution of about $1 million in supplies and services from those involved.

"It's nice to do something for somebody," said McClane, who is a server at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant and a tour-booker for a travel agency.

Over at the Carter-May assisted-living home for women and retired priests in West Ashley, Letty Clay, wiped a dirty film off the outside window panes.

"It's even better than a financial donation to give of your time," said Clay, a Charleston County administrative assistant in radio communications.

Caswell Edwards loved what he was doing as well.

"As long as I'm helping somebody, I'm good to go," said Edwards, a landscaper for Charleston County's public works department who was busy pulling weeds from a flower bed at the assisted-living home.

Nearby, a crew from JW Aluminum in Berkeley County hammered together a potting bench so the assisted-living residents could plant seeds and grow their own plants. The company crew already had cleaned the carpets on one wing of the building.

"We enjoy it," said Bryan Ables, a project coordinator at JW Aluminum. "The guys love to come out here and help people out. It's nice to get out of the plant too."

In the Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood, Bob Beckler brushed yellow paint on the walls of a staircase at St. Matthew Baptist Church.

"It's great to give a little bit back to the community," said Beckler, president of MWV (formerly MeadWestvaco) specialty chemicals division. "It's great from a team-building standpoint also. It gets everybody charged up about where they live."

Kathy Loudermilk echoed his sentiments.

After weeding a vegetable and flower garden at Chicora Elementary School, the MWV executive administrative assistant said, "It does instill a great sense of pride that you are helping the community, yourself and individuals."

Today, about 300 students from the nuclear submarine schools on the Naval Weapons Station will fan out across Liberty Park and Highland Terrace in North Charleston, clearing shrubbery, painting and generally cleaning up the neighborhoods.

Bill Stanfield, CEO of Metanoia, a community development corporation in North Charleston, called all the volunteer work a big boost for his agency and the needy people his agency targets.

"It's good to have a group come in and knock it out and it's done," Stanfield said. "It boosts our capacity to help out in the community."

Reach Warren Wise at 745-5850 or wwise@post andcourier.com.