NORWAY – Some area employees will be working at town and nonprofit organization sites this week raking, painting and sprucing up their looks.

“The United Way does an annual day of caring. We’re doing ours on Wednesday. The KeyBank does theirs on Tuesday so we linked the two together,” said Dennis Gray of the United Way.

KeyBank employees in Norway closed the bank Tuesday afternoon to go over to the soon-to-be-opened Norway Family Center on Deering Street, a homeless shelter for women and children, to help rake the lawn and paint fences.

Barrie Liebler, homeless youth outreach coordinator, said the Norway Family Center will house homeless women and children once it is renovated. The home is the former residence of Dr. Walter Dixon, who was the attending doctor at Stephens Memorial Hospital some 50 or more years ago.

“It’s Neighbors Make the Difference Day,” explained Terry Twitchell of KeyBank. He and employees Stephanie Witham, Kim Dupuis and Jo Ann Appleby helped paint the fence and do yard work.

More than 300 employees of KeyBanks throughout Maine left their job for an afternoon of community helping for the 19th annual Neighbors Make the Difference Day, said Laura Zimmerman, spokesman for KeyBank.

In Rumford, employees cleaned the information center, in Fryeburg they cleaned the town parks, and in Bethel they worked with town employees on the local swimming hole.

Additionally this week, Gray said that the United Way and other organizations including Oxford Networks, Hannaford in Oxford, the Dow Law office and Classic Cars employees will participate in the United Way Day.

Employees will spruce up the town’s scenic rest area by Lake Pennesseewassee, put in new playground equipment at the Child Health Center on Route 26 in Oxford, wash windows at Community Concepts, and work at other sites.