The following companies, organizations and municipalities took part in yesterday's Day of Caring. An asterisk denotes groups taking part for the first time:

B & B Tree Service
CCX Con-Way Central Express*
Clarkstown police
Dominican College
Duke Energy
Ferring Pharmaceuticals*
Good Samaritan Hospital*
Green Meadow Waldorf School
HSBC Bank USA
IBM
Key Bank
Little Tor Elementary School
M&T Bank
Nanuet Rotary*
Nice-Pak Products
North Rockland Central School District
Olympus Industrial America
Orange & Rockland Utilities
Orangetown Police Benevolent Association
Par Pharmaceuticals
Pearl River High School
Phillips & Millman, LLP
Price and Rosenberg, PC
Provident Bank
Ramapo High School*
Ramapo Police Benevolent Association
Rockland Community College
Rockland Department of Social Services
Rockland Economic Development Corporation
Rockland Paramedic Services
St. Thomas Aquinas College
Tappan Zee High School
The Bank of New York
The Dress Barn*
The Journal News
Town of Haverstraw
Union State Bank
United Parcel Service*
United Water
Valois of America*
Verizon
Wyeth

"They're scared of heights," Sparta jokingly said of two co-workers who were removing mulch from the back of a truck. Nelson Figueroa and Chris Priggins disputed the accusation. "I'm not scared," Figueroa said as he filled a wheelbarrow. "I just don't want to be covered in blue."

The town employees actually began work Thursday, planting flowers, adding mulch to the playground and making repairs. They painted yesterday and plan to come back next week to take care of the rest of the building.

"They're actually doing Days of Caring," said Mary Antonelli, vice president of the local United Way.

HEP director Daisy Rivera noted the town employees had voluntarily painted the front of the building. She said she recently requested an estimate to have the building painted and it came to $40,000.

"We wouldn't be able to do these projects on our own," Rivera said. "It's not in our budget." More than 500 employees from 42 area companies took part this year, an increase of 100 people and eight firms from last year. Thousands of local schoolchildren also contributed their time and energy.

"Our reputation has just grown every year," said Naomi Adler, president of the United Way of Rockland, noting the Day of Caring benefited 33 local nonprofit agencies, three more than in 2003.

Outside the Pathmark in Nanuet, Marcia Bronner-Sherman and Maryann Williams were actively encouraging shoppers to donate non-perishable items. The pair, who work for the Rockland Economic Development Corporation, had collected three shopping carts full of cereal, diapers and rice by early afternoon. The items were headed to People to People.

The REDC has nine employees, and has been allowing two - Bronner-Sherman and Williams - to run food drives, deliver meals to the homebound and keep senior citizens company as part of the Day of Caring for five years. "It makes us feel wonderful to work for a company like this. Our boss is great," said Bronner-Sherman, executive assistant to Holly Freedman, REDC's president and chief executive.

Wyeth, the pharmaceutical company with a plant in Pearl River, placed 51 employees at four sites around Rockland. Many, many more had to be turned away, said James Gibson, Wyeth's facilities manager. "We couldn't let all 100 go for the day," said Gibson, who did painting and groundskeeping at the Vacation Camp for the Blind in New Hempstead. "We're planning on having more days like this spread out throughout the year." Gibson couldn't escape his real job altogether. He received a couple of calls from the office on his cell phone, he said.

Send e-mail to Khurram Saeed <mailto:ksaeed@thejournalnews.com>