Love Dane 2026 - Stories Big and Small
This year’s Love Dane was made up of endless small stories that highlight the value of serving together in our communities. And together, these small stories tell a bigger story of churches coming together to meet needs of local schools, which was highlighted in a State Journal article.
Here are a few micro stories that zoom in on this year’s Love Dane:
A fifth grader was riding his bike nearby one of the sites and stayed to volunteer.
A welcome sign/bulletin board at an elementary school sat unchanged for a few years and it was looking a little sad. One volunteer, a professional muralist, was tapped to revitalize it.
La Follette HS’s clothing closet was being set up, and they were in dire need of racks and organizational items. Someone reached out to a contact at Goodwill to see if they could donate something and while organizationally they couldn’t, the individual ended up purchasing racks for the project.
In anticipation of rain but wanting to make sure the work was completed in time, volunteers showed up before the start time to get working!
During one project - serving a meal for a school staff’s first day back - volunteers and school staff brainstormed another opportunity for the future - to bring in lunch during a big grading day in February.
A high schooler, in learning about La Follette’s food pantry started asking questions about where else there are food pantries near her home and school, further investigating the needs and solutions in the area.
Another high schooler noted that people had donated some good quality protein bars to a food pantry. He learned that with a generous heart, you give the nice stuff away.
With some unlikely volunteer groups joining in, one site was able to bring over 30 people together to pack and organize over $8000 of donated items for a community center.
A volunteer coordinator named that her own kids were enthused to help out, noting that opportunities like these “bring out the best in them.”
After all was said and done, Love Dane 2026 brought 461 volunteers from 32 congregations together at 16 sites, dedicating 1,085 hours of service into our community.
