Approximately 200 residents and business leaders will celebrate the kickoff of United Way of South Hampton Roads’ 2004 fund-raising campaign in Suffolk today.

The ceremony, scheduled from 8 to 9 a.m. at the Seaboard Train Station and Suffolk Railroad Museum, kicks off the organization’s efforts to exceed the $600,313 raised last year, said Kristina Partlow, development manager in United Way’s Suffolk office.

The agency would not unveil its 2004 goal today.

Following the early morning ceremony, nearly 120 volunteers, representing 15 Suffolk businesses and civic organizations, will participate in local Day of Caring activities. They will spend the day doing all sorts of work – painting, weeding, cleaning and the like – at nine project sites in Suffolk.

The Suffolk group is part of a larger team of 1,800 volunteers from across Hampton Roads who will spend the day working a various human service agencies that receive United Way funding.

&uot;Volunteering is way of seeing how the United Way helps people in Suffolk,&uot; said Partlow. &uot;And it also helps the agencies because people are doing work that the agencies would have hired someone to do.&uot;

Projects across Suffolk include:

-Habitat for Humanity, where 12 volunteers will help install siding and paint the two-story house on Lee Street.

-Suffolk Family YMCA, where 20 volunteers will help winterize the outdoor pool; install the pool cover;

clean, mop and freshen up the childcare center; and paint.

-Salvation Army, where 50 volunteers will help clean out the warehouse by sorting clothes, food and furniture that will be distributed to about 100 families.

-Elephant’s Fork Elementary School, where 10 volunteers will help paint primary colors and alphabets on the kindergarten playground.

-Robertson Elementary School, where seven volunteers are need to till the front yard for planting and paint book shelves in the new media center.

-Places and Programs for Children Inc, where 20 volunteers will help with spring cleaning and landscaping.

-Kilby Shores Elementary School, where five volunteers will remove undergrowth on a playground fence.

-The Children’s Center, where three volunteers will help put together playground equipment and install gates.

-Luter Family YMCA in Smithfield, where eight volunteers will work in new and existing flower beds.

allison.williams@suffolknewsherald.com