Volunteers turn out this weekend

Thousands of volunteers will spend Saturday painting schools, cooking for the homeless, landscaping public spaces and working on projects to make their communities better places.

The Atlanta nonprofit Hands On Atlanta is coordinating with Gwinnett County’s Great Days of Service and the faith community’s Compassion Action Weekend to complete hundreds of projects to clean up, help out and give back. More than 30,000 volunteers are expected to take part in the work across metro Atlanta.

The annual weekend of giving and help started with Hands On Atlanta Day 18 years ago and has become one of the nation’s premiere days of community betterment. After the day of work on Saturday, participants are invited to Centennial Olympic Park for a celebration including free food and music.

There is also a free event featuring contemporary Christian music and entertainment at Suwannee Town Center Park featuring the band Caedmon’s Call and others. Money raised there will go to Amigos for Christ, a faith-based nonprofit in Buford that provides clean water, education, agricultural programs and medical help for the poor in Nicaragua.

Hands On Atlanta started here and has grown into a national organization encouraging the supporting community volutneerism.

Hands On Atlanta Day has become a hallmark event that attracts individuals, families and corporations to send members out into the communties they live in.

Unite started with 30 churches in 2003 and has grown to include 120 churches and their volunteers from across metro Atlanta.

The Gwinnett Coalition for Health and Human services started their day of work eight years ago.

For information and to sign up, visit www.HandsOnAtlanta.org, or www.uniteus.org, or www.gwinnettgreatdaysofservice.org.