On the front porch of Evelyn Krebs’ home on South Poplar Street, a long crack ran down the center to the stairs leading to her doorway.
In the backyard, a fountain required a fresh touchup, weeds needed pulled and lawn decorations demanded repair from weathering.
As of Friday, thanks to a group of volunteers from across town, Krebs, 81, no longer has to worry about taking care of those issues herself.
More than 100 Cummins Seymour Engine Plant employees, all from the same department, volunteered their time Friday as a part of Platform Four Community Work Day.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryPlatform Four primarily works on the QSK95 engine, which is nicknamed the Hedgehog.
The volunteers spruced up three local parks and helped senior citizens with various outdoor tasks at their homes across the city. There were nine total projects for the day.
Cummins employees Jeremy Lackey, a senior design engineer, and Delena Knoke, a readiness leader, led the workday.
“We do this for a lot of reasons,” Lackey said. “The main reason is to help people out in the community. We want to help the seniors especially. When there is overflow, we help the parks and rec. It’s our way to give back to the community through Cummins.”
The seventh annual event again worked with Cummins community partner Jackson County United Way. Lackey said the United Way reached out to local seniors and gave him and Knoke a list of people who needed assistance.
Nick Loebig, who has worked at Cummins for about eight months, led the team at Krebs’ home.
“It’s good to give everyone an opportunity to do something meaningful for the community,” he said. “It’s good that Cummins is passionate about these kinds of events where they will give you (the day) off to go help someone else.”
At Kessler Park, Ryan Hyslop and his team worked on a plethora of tasks with Seymour Parks and Recreation Department employees.
“We’re out here helping the parks department clean up the shelters. We’re repainting the structures and pouring new concrete for the dugouts at the ballfield and painting,” Hyslop said. “It’s good for everyone at Cummins to give back to the community. It’s a big part of the corporate goal and vision. It’s good to get pretty much everyone that works at the Seymour facility out here.”
At Gaiser and Shields parks, volunteers pressure-washed playground equipment, mulched and did concrete work and a lot more painting, Lackey said.
Christopher Adams was at Kessler helping with the dugouts.
“It’s just like the Day of Caring. When it comes to core values, we want everything we do to lead to a cleaner, better environment for the community and for the world,” Adams said. “This is fulfilling one of those core values we have.”
In May, 1,337 adult volunteers and 268 youth participants volunteered across the county for the 23rd annual Day of Caring.
Cummins and its employees plan on coming back out in the spring of 2020 to help with that project again.
Krebs said she’s thankful for the help she received, and she hopes more businesses continue to give back in the future.
“I can’t get out here and do it myself, and I’m a widow,” she said. “They’re helping out the community by fixing up these houses. It’s just a great thing. They and Day of Caring both are two of Seymour’s better projects.”