United Way of Defiance County

06/02/2026

Our volunteer sign-up is now open! 🤩

These spots fill up fast! Be sure to sign-up here:
🔗 https://tinyurl.com/2026-Volunteer-Sign-Up

Volunteers get free T-Shirts & parking passes! 🎟

05/26/2026

We had so much fun partnering with our friends at the Defiance County Health Department for their MyPlate program at Defiance Elementary and Tinora Elementary! 🍽️

We are a proud sponsor of this program, which is presented in all Defiance County elementary schools. The program teaches 3rd grade students about the importance of healthy eating and staying active. 🍎

Today was “taste-test” day, where students had the opportunity to try kiwi, pears, peppers, pineapple, snap peas, spinach, and tomatoes.

Each student got to take home their very own MyPlate to help them learn the five food groups and proper portion sizes, along with a $10 Chief gift certificate to use toward fresh fruits and vegetables! 🙌🏽

05/23/2026

What an awesome group! Thanks so much for all of your hard work! 👏🏽

05/23/2026

That’s a wrap on our 2026 Days of Caring! 💙

Over the past couple of days, so many incredible volunteers stepped up to give back across Defiance County, and we couldn’t be more grateful! 👏🏼

Yesterday afternoon, a fantastic group from Keller Logistics Group tackled a variety of projects at Lily Creek Farms.🐴

F&M Bank employees spent time helping at the House of Ruth, while the team from Shultz Huber & Associates, Inc. lent a hand at Camp Lakota, BSAC!

We wrapped things up this morning with ProMedica Defiance Regional Hospital employees hard at work at CPC Women's Health Resource.🪏

A huge thank-you to every workplace, volunteer, and community partner who participated. Your willingness to serve and invest in our community truly makes a difference!

05/21/2026

Our annual Days of Caring are officially underway! 🥳

We stopped by Hicksville bright and early this morning, where Sabre Industries, Inc. employees were hard at work helping with a landscaping project for the Hicksville Beautification Committee. 🪏

Meanwhile, employees from Mercy Health - Defiance spent the morning at Hebron Ministries organizing pantry items and sorting clothing donations.

Over at Defiance County Board of Developmental Disabilities/Good Samaritan School, volunteers from Grube, Inc. and Grant Insurance rolled up their sleeves to deep clean the sensory classroom ball pit. 🧼

We’ll be checking back in later today and tomorrow to highlight even more amazing volunteer groups and the projects they’re tackling throughout our community!

Days of Caring is a special multi-day service event that connects local workplace volunteer groups with nonprofit agencies and organizations across Defiance County to complete meaningful projects and make a lasting impact together. 💙

05/19/2026

❗VOLUNTEERS NEEDED❗

The Defiance County Health Department is in need of adult or high school student volunteers to assist with this event.

Volunteer positions available:
🌟 Group Leader: 8:00 AM - 11:45 AM
🌟 Sign-In / Check-Out: 8:00 AM - 9:00 AM & 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM
🌟 Timekeeper: 8:00 AM - 11:45 AM

Individuals interested in volunteering can email Taylor at:
📨 [email protected].

A volunteer information meeting will be held on June 2nd with two options of 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM. The meeting will take place in person at the Defiance County Health Department or can be attended online via Teams. Interested volunteers must contact me before attending this meeting. Volunteers will receive an event t-shirt to wear during the event(s).

05/18/2026

Our Spring Chicken Dinner fundraiser was held this past Thursday, and we’re so grateful for the incredible support from our community! 🍗

Thank you to everyone who purchased meals and helped make this fundraiser a success. We hope you enjoyed them! 👏🏼

A special thank you to Jacob's Meats for preparing the food and to WesBanco for hosting us.

We’d also like to recognize our amazing volunteers from The Flock at St. Mary Catholic Church, our board members, Kristie from Andres O'Neil & Lowe Agency, and Jessica and Amber from F&M Bank for helping us pack the meals.

Lastly, thank you to our delivery drivers from Northwest Real Estate Services for helping get meals delivered to businesses! 🚗

05/14/2026

We greatly appreciate all of your help today! 👏🏽

“The Flock” volunteered today for United Way’s Annual Chicken Dinner Fundraiser! It may have been a chilly start to the morning, but those chicken sales were definitely HOT! Thank you to everyone who supported this amazing community event!

05/13/2026

We had an amazing day last Saturday at the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive! 🤩

Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Defiance community, we collected more than 48,000 pounds of food and monetary donations in just one day! 👏🏼

All donations were divided equally among 7 local food pantries to help families throughout our community.

A huge thank you to The Lions Club and Papa John’s for providing breakfast and pizza for our volunteers throughout the day! 🍕

We’d also like to recognize Mike Doss from Kingston Trucking for going above and beyond to help make this event a success.

Thank you to Defiance County Commissioner Dana Phipps for stopping by and lending a hand as well!

And finally, thank you to our hardworking mail carriers, whose extra effort each year makes the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive possible. 🙌🏽

We appreciate everyone who donated, volunteered, and supported this event. We’ll see you again next year on the Second Saturday in May! 🥳

05/13/2026

The end of the school year is flying by… we have a few Backpack Buddy volunteer groups to give a shout out to 📣:

The Flock
Defiance Citizens in Action
Andres O'Neil & Lowe Agency
Shultz Huber & Associates, Inc.
ProMedica Defiance Regional Hospital

Thank you for your helping hands the last couple of weeks! 😊

🎒Backpack Buddy provides kid-friendly, nutritious food every weekend for 515 students in need across Defiance County.

This year, our 16th in operation, we are serving 65 more students than last year, and rising grocery costs are making it more important than ever to have community support. 🙌

A donation of just $15 can sponsor one child receiving Backpack Buddy food bags for the rest of the school year!

Every gift makes a difference and helps ensure local students head into the weekend with the food they need. 💙 It takes a village!

To donate, visit the link below and select “Backpack Buddy” under the Choose a Campaign tab.
🔗 https://www.unitedwaydefiance.org/form/Donate

If you’d like to get involved, please contact:
📞 419-782-3510
📧 [email protected]