The impact volunteerism can have on a community was on full display Friday as dozens of PSO employees traveled across the Tulsa Metro to help their neighbors.

The United Way Day of Caring always brings out large numbers of volunteers from PSO, and this year was no different with roughly 65 people showing up from several departments. One crew took on a large landscaping job at The Parent Child Center of Tulsa, a non-profit dedicated to ending child abuse.

“They are doing great work, we are so appreciative,” said Kimberly Parker, Vice President of Therapeutic and Family Services.

She said the work PSO employees did was transformative and will go a long way to create a warm and welcoming environment for her clients. It was clearly hard work under the warm sun, but there was no shortage of smiles from volunteers. 

“It truly is what PSO is all about,” said PSO President Leigh Anne Strahler. “It’s about taking care of our community and our customers and that’s what we’re doing at all of these different sites.”

Strahler said it’s inspiring to see employees come together to give back to the communities PSO serves.

“These are employees that may not work together on a day-to-day basis. They are from different departments and today is a day where they came together and worked on a project and it’s just great to see,” said Strahler.

For many PSO employees, this wasn’t their first time helping out with Day of Caring. J.T. Davis and others worked to put together a small metal shed at the Tulsa Day Center.

“It looks simpler than it is,” said Davis.

He said throughout his 30 years at PSO, he’s seen the importance of volunteers.

“Everybody has projects and not enough people to work on the projects, it’s great that we can volunteer people to show up and give them an extra hand,” said Davis.

Extra hands were certainly needed at a senior living apartment complex where Foreman Anthony Hughes and his line crew utilized a bucket truck to make lighting repairs.

“We like to work for the community and do what we can to help,” said Hughes.

With a humble and hard-working spirit, his team did their part to make life a little better for residents.

Other projects completed Friday included two wheelchair ramps for clients of Meals On Wheels and Ability Resources. A PSO volunteer team also took on several projects at A New Leaf in Broken Arrow.

All told Day of Caring was a big success thanks to employees willing to get their hands dirty and make a positive impact on our neighbors and customers.