Volunteers go door-to-door in support of The Arc’s programs in Buffalo County

Brett Westfall

Over 130 volunteers from the Kearney community and UNK stepped up to go door-to-door to sell $6 honey bottles shaped as teddy bears to support the 54th Annual Honey Sunday from the Arc of Buffalo County. The Arc of Buffalo County is a private non-profit organization which provides services and advocacy to people with developmental disabilities and their families.

Volunteers asked for donations or sold the honey bears to support the Arc’s programs, such as Buddy Bowling, dances, life skill classes and respite programs.

“Over 120 Thompson Scholar students from UNK stepped up and helped this year,” said Sara Frias, committee member of the Arc. “Many of us are new to the committee for this event, but after seeing many students help out, we were pleased.”

For over six decades, the Arc has accomplished its goal of altering perceptions of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities around the nation. Honey Sunday has been a huge part of the UNK student community to step up and volunteer by selling honey bears or taking donations.

“We almost don’t know how many bears of honey we have sold because it is always so many and at the end of the night we try and count cases and even that is a lot,” said Sherry Stransberry, executive director of the Arc. “Plenty of younger kids and volunteers dressed up as honey bees, too, to show support and it was too cute too see how much people in the community love to show support.” 

Ever since 1963, the Arc of Nebraska started selling honey bears by going door-to-door in Grand Island. A year later, it became a statewide event for volunteers to sell honey bears. Now, over five decades later, volunteers still continue to help in support of Arc programs such as Buddy bowling, dances, life skill classes and respite programs for children with disabilities.

“It was nice to see over 120 Thompson Scholars from the campus help us,” Stransberry said. “Once we count up the cases sold and see the donations from people from the envelopes that are returned from the four-person volunteer groups, we will award a winner with a prize. This is great that many students step up and help, if anyone wants to help year-round, they can always email us from a link on our Facebook page.”