CASSOPOLIS — Employees at Cassopolis’ Woodlands Behavioral Health have been donning jeans and other casual wear every Friday in order to help raise funds for two local causes.

Wearing jeans to work on Fridays has been happening at Woodlands Behavioral Healthcare for the last 10 years. Each week, staff wishing to wear jeans contribute $1 to the Casual for a Cause fund. When the fund reaches at least $500, staff nominate one or two local community efforts to donate all or a portion of the monies to.

At Woodlands’ most recent staff day on April 29, staff elected to give half of the collected $800 to the Cass County Sheriff’s office to support the care of Nellie the bloodhound. The other half went to Sam’s Swing, an effort led by a 7-year-old Marcellus boy to add a wheelchair accessible swing to a local park, so that “all children can play together.”

Woodlands staff said they appreciate all of the many things law enforcement does to support Woodlands and the community. Officer Tiffany Graves recently presented safety training to staff at no cost to Woodlands, so supporting Nellie was an immediate good cause, said Kathy Sheffield, CEO of Woodlands.

Denise Hemenway also nominated Sam’s Swing.

“This initiative is awesome and aligns with Woodlands’ goal of community integration,” Sheffield said of Sam’s Swing. “Woodlands staff applauded Sam’s efforts and awarded him $400 to his swing project.”