Bill Trondsen, of Horseheads, works at Eaton Corp., which manufactures electronic parts, and he’s normally at the plant Fridays.

But on this Friday, Trondsen was spending some time outdoors.

He wasn’t goofing off. In fact, he was hard at work on a different kind of job. Trondsen and several of his Eaton Corp. colleagues were sprucing up Forest Lawn Cemetery on Jerusalem Hill Road in the Town of Elmira.

The Eaton crew was taking part in the annual Day of Action organized by the United Way of the Southern Tier, and Trondsen and his team were among 390 volunteers from local businesses and organizations that painted walls, pulled weeds and performed other tasks at 32 locations around Chemung and Steuben counties.

“Last year we did a cleanup at Dunn Field,” Trondsen said. “We get to step out of work for the day.”

Siemens Energy is the sponsor of this year’s Day of Action, which is United Way of the Southern Tier’s premiervolunteer event.

Nonprofit organizations participate by registering their volunteer projects with United Way in the spring. The agency then matches volunteer groups with the projects.

“United Way of the Southern Tier is proud to organize Day of Action, which, on a single day, provided more than2,200 hours of volunteer time to nonprofits in our community,” said United Way President and CEO Steve Hughes.

Among those volunteers was a crew from Chemung Canal Trust Co., who reported to Eldridge Park in Elmira on Friday morning to take part in a beautification project there.

Once the list of projects were out, people couldn’t wait to sign up, said Mary Meisner of Chemung Canal, who is also United Way board secretary.

“We always do a project every year. We wanted to do something where we could be outside,” Meisner said. “The United Way will send out a list and we get to pick. Within two or three days, all the projects were filled.”

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Other locations on Friday’s list included Tanglewood Nature Center, Meals on Wheels of Chemung County, Southside Community Center in Elmira, the Chemung County Fairgrounds, Corning Children’s Center and Corning Youth Center.

Many of the volunteers have taken part in multiple Action Days.

“The plant does this every year,” said Eaton Corp. Plant Manager Cecelia Rodriguez. “It’s important for the community. It’s something we like to do.”

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This article originally appeared on Elmira Star-Gazette: United Way of the Southern Tier Day of Action targeted these projects