By Lizzie Walje | [email protected]

For the past five years, residents of Millcreek have participated in the annual Canyon Rim Cares event. The philanthropic event, founded by Nate Gabby, is an opportunity for residents to give back to their community through multiple service projects.

“This is fifth consecutive year we’ve held the Canyon Rim Cares Day of Service” said Gibby. “The purpose is to provide Millcreek residents an opportunity to come together to do something salient to improve our community.”

Although the day is geared toward Millcreek locals, each year volunteers from across the valley participate. What transpires is an opportunity for residents to give back to the community in a targeted and tangible way.

From 9 a.m. to noon on July 16, volunteers of all ages enjoyed a complimentary breakfast and had an opportunity to interact with the organizations and sign up for service projects. Despite the heat, volunteers remained in high spirits as the day of service kicked off.

After the morning’s events concluded, volunteers proceeded to group off, and travel to their next destinations where they would begin work on their chosen service project. This year, Canyon Rim Cares featured several philanthropic groups and organizations, ranging from a Ukrainian street market to a center that helps children cope with loss and grief.

“We’ve helped many different charities and raised more than $100,000 over the years. This year, we aided six important causes, including helping one of our elementary schools build an outdoor classroom and providing a Ukrainian market to help Ukrainian refugees,” Gibby noted.

Volunteers could choose from six projects. The first was to help with a Ukrainian market, designed to help local Ukrainian refugees. Many in the community worked tirelessly to prepare food and crafts to sell at the event, with all proceeds going toward providing a wage for refugees and to support the war resistance in Ukraine.

Also involved in this year’s event was Peace House. “Peace House provides support services, safe housing, and prevention education to victims of domestic violence. Canyon Rim Cares will help Peace House client by providing household kits that will help them resettle in a new living situation,” said a media release provided by Canyon Rim Cares.

Volunteers could also work with The Sharing Place. The Sharing Place tasks itself with the unique mission of helping children who need support after dealing with a death in the family. For this years’ service project, volunteers could opt to deep clean The Sharing Place.

Millcreek Elementary Outdoor Classroom was present. Forty percent of Millcreek Elementary students come from low-income families. Canyon Rim Cares volunteers helped build and install garden boxes and other parts of an outdoor classroom for the school.

Finally, participants could either choose from Art Access or 72-hour kits. Art Access allows individuals with mental and physical disabilities the opportunity to receive training from professional artists. Due to the pandemic, Art Access has had to suspend usual operations. At this year’s event, they sold pieces by local artists to supplement lost income. As per the 72-hour kits, volunteers were able to create their own kits for themselves and/or provide donations for locals in need.

Canyon Rim Cares has found success with this event citing as many as 500 participants at past events. It was a simple premise that prompted founder Gibby to pioneer its creation. “Actually, five or six years ago, I had a couple of neighbors that both serendipitously told me they felt excluded in the neighborhood activities for one reason or another,” Gibby said.

 “We thought, you know what, we’re going to go out and find something that can help break down walls, build connections. So, we thought let’s do a day of service where everyone can come out and do something for their community,” Gibby said.  

Gibby remains hopeful and inspired by the community and their continued enthusiasm to give back. “It truly is the miracle of Millcreek that residents, businesses and causes can come together on a single day and make such a huge difference."