Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

HANNIBAL, MO. -- The United Way of the Mark Twain Area serves many agencies.

It's not just financial support, but also support through volunteers who donate their time and resources.

Some of that volunteerism comes during the Annual Day of Caring.

More then 100 volunteers made Thursday's event for the United Way of the Mark Twain area a great success.

Lou Lemen, who is the executive director of the United Way for the Mark Twain area was very glad to see the number of volunteers who signed up to be part of the annual event.

And some of those volunteers headed over to the FACT Warehouse to load up food into about 300 buddy packs for the HAYS program. Hays stands for "Hannibal Alliance for Youth Success" and that group makes sure kids in Hannibal have something to eat during the weekend.

Stephenie Tomeczek is the president of HAYS and she said, "When we get a lot of hands it makes light work. So the more volunteers we can find, we can actually handle this problem better, quicker, more efficiently and actually stretch our resources, not just as HAYS but also as a community to be able to serve more of these kids in a timely manner."

Throughout the day, volunteers completed project after project after project. There was even a group from the Northeast Power Cooperative, who was putting together a jungle gym for Avenues and making sure the new pea gravel was hauled in for a part of the backyard.

"They share with them what they've seen, and what those programs are doing and of course that give the validation to the campaign and the needs of the campaign. So it's a win win situation, for everyone," Lemen said.

Lemen also said the United Way just doesn't serve Hannibal, but serves a five county region in Northeast Missouri. 18 member agencies got some help to complete projects that were on their wish list and they'll be just as many next year with the 18th annual day of caring.

This year's campaign goal is $565,000.

The slogan, "People helping people-The United Way", was chosen through an area wide contest.

You can get more information on the United Way at www.unitedwaynemo.org.