United Way Day of Caring 2026

In the Community, News

Giving Back at a Place That Holds a Piece of Our History

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There’s something special about giving back to a place that already holds a piece of our history. On August 6, members of The Hayner Hoyt Corporation team joined the United Way of Central New York’s Day of Caring at The Syracuse & Onondaga County Fire Museum, spending the day moving display cases, organizing memorabilia, and helping clean up and improve the museum’s spaces.

What is Day of Caring

Day of Caring is United Way of Central New York’s largest single day of community service, bringing together volunteers from local businesses, schools, and civic groups to complete projects for nonprofits across the region in a single day. In 2025, 1,342 volunteers tackled more than 100 projects throughout Central New York, contributing over 4,000 combined hours of service. This year’s event, held Thursday, August 6, once again brought together hundreds of volunteers, including our team, to lend a hand where it’s needed most.

For more than a century, United Way of Central New York has worked to identify the needs of the community and connect people and resources to meet them, and Day of Caring has become one of the most visible expressions of that mission each year, turning one day into a region-wide show of support for local nonprofits.

A Firehouse with a Personal Connection

This year’s project held special meaning for our team. The Syracuse & Onondaga County Fire Museum is housed in the former quarters of Syracuse Fire Department’s Engine Company 4, a firehouse built in the late 1800s on Wolf Street in Syracuse’s Little Italy neighborhood. Engine Co. 4 was disbanded in the mid-1900s, and the building sat largely vacant for decades before being reimagined as a museum dedicated to preserving the history of firefighting in Syracuse and Onondaga County.

The firehouse also has a special connection to our company. Gary Thurston, Hayner Hoyt Chairman/CEO, once owned the building before donating it, along with a refurbished antique fire truck, to help establish the museum, a project nearly 30 years in the making for the volunteers and former firefighters who worked to bring it to life. Today, the museum’s collection includes multiple restored antique fire engines, including a century-old Ahrens-Fox, along with a restored 1911 Captain’s Office, bunk room, and the building’s original brass sliding poles, preserving a vintage firehouse experience for visitors of all ages.

Knowing that history made this year’s Day of Caring especially meaningful for our team, giving us the chance to spend the day helping care for a space, and the history it holds, that’s connected to our company’s own story.

Proud to Give Back

Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time and to the United Way of Central New York for another great Day of Caring. We’re always proud to have our team out in the community, lending a hand where it’s needed.

Learn more about the United Way of Central New York’s Day of Caring at unitedway-cny.org, and learn more about the Syracuse & Onondaga County Fire Museum’s mission to preserve local firefighting history at volunteercny.org.