We are very proud of the work our board of directors has done this past year in researching local needs and determining where services were lacking and how best our United Way could make an impact in our community.
Our 2011-2012 Annual Report does a great job in explaining the issues and showing how we are addressing them through community impact grants and direct services.
We'd love your feedback.
Posted by Kim Connolly
While we’re wishing a Happy Halloween to all of you, we’re also sending lots of love to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy this week. Our community was spared of the devastating impact of Sandy, but many others were not. So, as you prepare for what you’ll wear to a party tonight or what route you’ll take your kids on to trick-or-treat, also take some time to think about:
Whether you are in sunny Florida, chilly
Charlottesville, or snowy West Virginia, Happy Halloween from Jenny from
Forrest Gump (Jessie Ray, Smart Beginnings director), June Carter Cash (Jessica Snyder, United Way Volunteer Center director) and the rest of our United
Way-Thomas Jefferson Area staff. Be safe wherever you are and take time today
or over the next week to volunteer, donate blood, or become educated on
planning for emergencies!
Posted by: Jessica Snyder
In 2008, we partnered with our friend, Don Rich, owner of Zestivities! (now in Nellsyford) while he was also a Segway dealer. We had a lot of fun using Segways during our United Way Day of Caring and then had the idea to create a "United Way Segway Drill Team" for Charlottesville's Dogwood Festival Parade.
We had a blast practicing and then participating in the parade. Here is a blog post about it, featuring the videos we posted to YouTube. They are our most popular YouTube videos to date.
Imagine our surprise when we received this email last Friday:
-------- Original message --------
Subject:America's Got Talent Season 8
Hello,
I work for the television show America's Got Talent, and I came across some youtube videos of the United Way Segway Drill team and loved it! I couldn't find a direct email address for the team but found this one that is associated with it. I don't know if you have seen our show before but we are NBC's number one show of the summer and are the only variety talent show on television where you can be any age and have any talent! Every season we look for new and exciting talent we have never seen before and we have never had a segway drill team on our show before! I was wondering if your team would be interested in auditioning for us this season. We are going to be holding an open audition in Norfolk, VA in December and love you guys to come out for it! The routine would have to be a 90 second routine and we ask that people use current or popular music. I think NBC and our producers here in Los Angeles would really like you guys! Look forward to hearing from you!
Best--
Kayla DeFrancesco
Assistant to Producers
Season 8
Our current and former Segway drill team staff members could not stop laughing as we exchanged emails back and forth. Tempting as it may be to hold a reunion tour, we won't be participating, but it has been fun reliving the experience!
Posted by: Kim Connolly
Any event that involves over 2,300 people, 65
businesses, 113 nonprofits/public schools and 234 volunteer projects take the
coordination and involvement of many.
As I reflect on my second and our
office’s 21st United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, I
can’t help but to feel grateful. I’m grateful for all of the people,
organizations and groups that came together to bring over $304,000 of volunteer
hours into our community on a single day.
I want to take this time to thank you.
Thank you to the sponsors who made the breakfast possible (State Farm), provided lunch for our staff (Raising Canes) and covered the event on the radio (WINA) and television (Charlottesville Newsplex).
Thank you to the nonprofits and schools that hosted volunteers and organized meaningful projects for local businesses.
Thank you to the thousands of volunteers who took time away from work to spend
time making our community a better place to live.
Thank you to the companies that allowed their employees to miss time from work to volunteer painting houses, landscaping and much more.
Thank you to the United Way staff who spent time in the weeks leading up to the United Way Day of Caring to help print signs, bring up and sort supplies from our basement, and arrive so early in the morning to set things up.
People always thank me for the work that I do behind the scenes to plan the day, but I don’t (and can’t!) do this event alone. It’s because of the wonderful team leaders, thoughtful project coordinators and my supportive colleagues that this event is able to happen each year and make such a difference in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties. Without the support and teamwork of the thousands of people involved in even the smallest details of this community-wide event, the United Way Day of Caring wouldn’t have such a lasting impact on our community.
Thank you!
Posted by Jessica Snyder, United Way Volunteer Center Director
The United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring.
The United Way Day of Caring.
The Day of Caring.
Or, in our office shorthand: DOC.
Our office is in “All hands on deck!” mode in preparation for our annual volunteer extravaganza next Wednesday, September 19th.
This year, we have 2,300 volunteers registered for 234 projects at 113 nonprofits and schools. There are teams from 65 local businesses and organizations, with the University of Virginia and UVa Health Systems providing nearly 1,000 of our volunteers. Our good neighbor, State Farm Insurance is sending around 100 volunteers, and Lexis Nexis and the CFA Institute each send around 70 employees to volunteer. And other local businesses send from 2 to 50 employees.
That means a whole lot of local businesses allow and encourage their employees to spend a day volunteering in our community. And we can’t forget those employees left behind to keep things running.
Jessica Snyder, our Volunteer Center Director, is seeing her
9 months of preparation come to fruition and is deftly handling the thousand
details that make the day run smoothly, not to mention taking the last minute
changes in stride. The rest of us do what we can do help her. We haul the signs
out of our basement, print new signs, arrange pick up of traffic cones, alert
the media, assign our board members project sites to visit to thank the
volunteers. The spread sheets detailing every one of the projects are voluminous,
and the details (weights for balloons? – check) are numerous, but necessary to
making such a huge undertaking seamless. It is fun, it is exhausting and
somewhat overwhelming, but on that day, at the kick-off breakfast at Albemarle
Square, when the State Farm Singers are lifting up their voices in joy, and the
hundreds of volunteers are full of energy to make a difference in our
community, it all seems worth it.
Posted by Kim Connolly
Oh the joys of a neat and organized office!
We had our annual “Office Cleanup Day” last Friday. Our staff set aside the day to go through their files and piles, clean out shelves and organize common areas and storage areas in our building. Jeans and sneakers are the uniform of the day. On Cleanup Day, I drive my family’s 14 year old pickup, and bring file boxes to our off-site storage facility, and also make at least
one trip to the dump, while another staff member brings papers to recycling. And of course, we also recycle office items amongst ourselves, trying out new desktop file holders and inboxes, in the hopes of cleaner, more organized desks.
One of the highlights is going down into our basement - “The Dungeon” as we fondly call it – and getting rid of the various items we have stowed down there. It is an interesting place – we have donated bottles of wine, dozens of signs we use for the United Way Day of Caring each year, snow shovels, gardening tools, Christmas ornaments, our pop-up tent, a portable podium, and everything else that gets used only occasionally. Our building was built as a home in 1915, so you can imagine the character of our basement – sump pump and all.
Somehow, I ended up with two NEW boxes in my office from other folk’s room; items related to our history (we will celebrate our 70th year of service in 2013) that I will need to go through in my “spare time.” I think I will need to set aside a “History Day” to go through the boxes. If there is anyone out there who loves to create scrapbooks, I could use your help!
Posted by: Kim Connolly
Let the games begin!
Sure, it’s not as exciting as watching Olympic synchronized diving or your team’s next NFL preseason game, but completing the Project Selection Lottery for the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring certainly feels like competing in a marathon! For two straight weeks, I’ll be working all day, every day to ensure that more than 140 volunteer teams are able to find a project that is both meaningful and fun.
Instead of playing out in a stadium, this game is played in my tucked-away nook at our United Way office downtown. The rules of the game are pretty simple: make sure that all of our teams walk away happy with their project and that the nonprofits and schools will have enough volunteers to fill their needs.
To ensure fairness in picking projects – and to make sure that 10 teams don’t all pick the same project, we have a lottery system. I use an app that randomly mixes up the volunteer teams and assigns them a number. The first day, I notify teams 1 – 25 that it is their day to pick their project. They are the lucky ones, as they have all 200+ projects to choose from. Each consecutive day, the next 25 teams on the list get their chance. From year to year, I do make sure that the last 50 or so teams do not get bottom spots again, but that is the extent of my manipulation of the numbers. And believe me, I have been bribed! But just like a referee, I must remain impartial.
My “playbook” is a notebook filled with spreadsheets, project lists and team rosters. The teams wait anxiously for their turn to see what projects will still be available to “draft”. I receive about 40 calls per day from team leaders, who fill a role similar to a coach. Our team leaders are responsible for encouraging their teams, making sure that everyone is where they need to be and maintaining communication with their players and also the nonprofit or school where they will be playing.
As each project is filled and each team walks away happy with their pick, I record a win on my score sheet. You see, this is the kind of game that everyone wins. The nonprofits and schools win, because they are getting volunteers to complete projects that have been on their wish lists for months or even years. The volunteers win because they’ll get to spend a day team-building with colleagues and making a real difference in the community.
Before we know it, our teams will don their Day of Caring t-shirt uniforms and head out to pre-game party at our State Farm sponsored Kick-Off Breakfast. After the breakfast, they’ll gear up to participate in our “Super Bowl” of volunteering – the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring. That evening, people will watch the highlights of the event on the Charlottesville Newsplex or listen to a recap on WINA.
At the end of the day on September 19th, I will breathe such a sigh of relief and take a moment to reflect on the whirlwind. All of the hours of preparation, hundreds of phone calls and thousands of emails will be so worth witnessing the biggest win of all - seeing thousands of smiling faces at the project sites while tackling some of our community’s biggest needs.
If it is August, it must be audit time at our United Way. Each August, two auditors from Hantzmon Wiebel, LLC take over the lunch table on our third floor for an exhaustive review of our financial records. From individual donations, to grants we have received, to grants that we make to other local nonprofit programs, our audit is complicated. In addition, we are the fiscal agent for several programs like The Santa Fund and Women United, among others. Plus, we have several direct services of our own, such as Child Care Scholarships, Prescription Assistance and the United Way Volunteer Center. Whew! No wonder the auditors set up shop upstairs for about a month.
Why is all this important? Transparency and accountability. When a donor is evaluating a nonprofit, they should also look at the organization’s financial stability and efficiency. An annual audit should be available on that organization’s website. If an organization is not large enough to require a full audit, they should have at the least an independently performed year‐end income and expense statement available to the public.
Not only do we have a full audit performed every year, we also have an Audit Committee which includes a Darden professor of economics, a corporate Chief Operating Officer, and an accountant.
One of the results of our fiscal and management practices is that our overhead is impressively low – last year it was a mere 16.01%. The Better Business Bureau states that nonprofits should spend no more than 35% on overhead. Not only do we require ourselves to have a full audit each year, we also require an audit from each local agency applying for a United Way Community Impact grant. If an agency's revenues are under $200,000, the agency may submit a financial compilation in accordance with Statements and Standards for Accounting and Review Services issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. When a program receives a grant from us, you know it is well-vetted.
Ask the hard questions. We welcome yours. Our Audit Committee has worked very hard to make a complex document clear and understandable. Here is last year’s audit. Once this year’s audit is complete, we will post it on our website. We are proud of our well run, financially stable and - most important – effective organization!
While is all this important? Because heartfelt stories and emotion-triggering photos need to be balanced with proof of financial stability and program results. Nonprofit donations are like investments in a program’s stated mission. And folks want to see a good return on their investment. United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area is invested in School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health. What are you invested in? Join us and see the results.
Each year on the day of our United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, United Way staff and Board members team up and travel to visit the volunteers and nonprofits where projects are taking place. As soon as we stepped into the door of the Virginia Discovery Museum on my trip to local nonprofits that day, I knew that something special was taking place. All of the volunteers were smiling, laughing and busily working away. We were greeted by the wonderful staff at the museum and heard about the amazing work that had taken place with the volunteers.
As soon as I got back to the office that day, I wrote a letter to the museum staff asking for them to share what made the Day of Caring so special for them. I thought that highlighting the excitement at the Virginia Discovery Museum and showcasing the impact the volunteers made that day could help other nonprofits see the benefits in participating in such a special event.
Here is what the Virginia Discovery Museum staff shared:
"Every year, the Virginia Discovery Museum participates in Day of Caring. In fact, we purposely schedule our exhibit renovations around that day. This year, we welcomed volunteers from BB&T and CFA for an all-day, museum-wide renovation project. Starting at 9am, volunteers painted every room in the museum with new, exciting colors, helped us move furniture that otherwise would not have moved, and constructed new exhibits for the kids to play on. It is safe to say that without the hard work and enthusiasm of these volunteers, our recent new exhibits (Discovery Garage and Virginia Frontier) would not have opened on time to the public.
The most memorable part of Day of Caring is the camaraderie and the “willingness to do anything” of the volunteers. More than once, staff at the Virginia Discovery Museum was told that the volunteers come expecting to work hard and accomplish the tasks set before them. The staff started the day with several possible tasks for the volunteers, thinking that only a token few would be accomplished. By the end of the day, every single task was complete; and both the staff and volunteers left the museum exhilarated with a sense of accomplishment.
In the following week, staff members raved about the help we received from Day of Caring volunteers. We wish this event occurred multiple times throughout the year. We genuinely hope that the volunteers had a great time at the museum and we eagerly await the next Day of Caring."
Today is my last day after 18 years at the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. What a joy it has been to work with such a great group of people in such a great community! I took a position in 1994 coordinating our Child Care Scholarship Program; since then I’ve gotten to be a part of helping thousands of local families with quality child care, prescriptions, health insurance, financial literacy, tax assistance and much more. But the real joy is not the numbers – it is knowing that there is a story and face behind each one. I know that our community is a much better place for the work that I’ve had the privilege to be a part of each day for 18 years.
So my thanks to all the wonderful United Way staff members, each special volunteer that I’ve gotten to work with, each donor that has helped support the United Way, and all the community partners that show such commitment and compassion each day. It has been humbling to witness what you give to others every day, and I am thankful to have shared this journey with each of you. I will miss you – keep up the great work!
Posted by: Jon Nafziger,
Vice President for Community Initiatives
The numbers are in. Our Thomas Jefferson Area Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) coalition prepared 1,880 tax returns at no charge for local low to middle income residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties.
The numbers tell us that the average refund was $1,491 and the average Earned Income Tax Credit (for those who qualified) was $1,742. Similarly, the average Child Care Credit was $784.
The average income for those we helped was $19,341. Think of the impact that receiving those kinds of refunds and credits can have on someone with that sort of income. You could buy new tires for your car. Pay off a medical debt. Visit your mother in another state. Start a savings account.
And the numbers go on. Our coalition volunteers saved these 1,880 people a total of $366,200 in tax preparation fees. We had more than 100 volunteers, most of them UVA students and law students. The total dollar value of credits for earned income, child care and education totaled $1,605,879. The most returns (649) were prepared at the site at the University of Virginia’s Human Resources department. The United Way’s office prepared the second highest number of returns (216). University of Virginia Community Credit Union employees prepared returns in their branches in Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Nelson counties, plus their downtown Charlottesville branch, for a total of 367 returns.
The numbers also tell us that the total impact of our coalition’s efforts this year, including refunds, credits and saved fees, was $3,453,535.
But what the numbers do not tell us are the stories about the people whose lives were vastly improved by this boost to their bank accounts. Here at the United Way office, a staff member prepared a return for a woman who was a recent immigrant from Eastern Europe and had a middle school age daughter. She could not believe that she would actually be getting money back from the earned income tax credit, and even asked to review the return, in case we had made a mistake. Once she received her tax credit, she returned to our office to show us pictures of the new furniture she was able to buy: new beds and mattresses for her and her daughter. She said “Thanks to you, we will not sleep on the floor any more.”
One thousand, eight hundred and eighty tax returns prepared. There are a lot more stories to be told.
Posted by: Kim Connolly
The local businesses who are members of the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area's Home Run Club pledge $10 to our United Way for each home run the University of Virginia baseball team hits from April 1 through the end of the post season. As one way of saying "Thank You" for their support, our Team Captain, CenturyLink, hosts a pre-game tailgate party for the team members using CavOne, UVA's sports promotion trailer.
Last year's tailgate was on a Sunday, and the game was moved earlier in the day due to forecasted thunderstorms in the afternoon of a brutally hot day. So our lunch tailgate morphed into a brunch tailgate.
This year, rain had been forecast for game day well in advance, but "scattered showers" meant that the weeknight game time did not change in advance. We set up our food and drink and tents, and just as our party start time came, so did light rain, which morphed into steady rain. However, our attendees took it all in stride, and the clustered tents made for an intimate gathering in which everyone got to meet new people and get caught up with old friends, too.
Once again, we had amazing food, thanks to Fry's Spring Station, Raising Canes and Beer Run. Our friends at Specialty Beverage also helped out with an assortment of craft beers.
Too bad the delayed game did not add to our home run tally, but we DID add to our friend tally.
This weekend's home series against Georgia Tech promises great baseball weather, and our fingers are crossed for a home run or two.
Posted by: Kim Connolly
In my third year at the University of Virginia I decided to enroll in the internship program (UIP) for the entirety of my fourth year. I had extra space in my schedule and thought it would be fun to get out of the classroom for ten hours a week and do something a little more practical.
My first day at the United Way was both wonderful and overwhelming. Jessica, my sponsor, showed me my desk and then introduced me to everybody in the office. They were all incredibly nice and excited to meet me and they all wanted to tell me all about what they did. I of course promptly forgot everything that they said and spend the next few months learning everything I could about the office and remembering what they had told me earlier.
At my internship seminar I heard horror stories of other interns’ experiences; they would vacuum for ten hours a week, didn’t have a desk to sit at, or would have to deal with highly erratic sponsors and schedules. At the United Way, however, everybody went out of their way to accommodate my schedule and they did their best to involve me with everything that went on in the office. As the intern I expected to do a lot of the busy work in the office, but people would hesitate to ask me to do certain things; everybody really wanted me to have a valuable experience and not just envelope-stuffing experience. I helped organized a School Supply Drive, participated in the Day of Caring (I have never blown up that many balloons), went to a Board Meeting, did research for Impact Area meetings, worked on the Better Business Challenge to make the office more sustainable, and accompanied people to the radio station.
From January until April, I devoted most of my time to doing taxes through the EITC tax coalition. While taxes might not sound very exciting, I really enjoyed this portion of the internship! It meant I got to interact with clients, problem solve if a return got rejected, and really feel like I was making a difference in the community.
By interning at the United Way, I now have a much better understanding of how organizations, and particularly non-profits, function. I feel a lot more confident that I will be capable of holding an actual job. I gained great work experience and also started really connecting to Charlottesville (the University tends to be a little bit of a bubble at times). It felt great to be a part of an organization that works so hard to improve the community. I know that when I visit Charlottesville in the future, I will definitely drop by the office and say hi to everyone!
Posted by: Ellen Janssen, University of Virginia Class of 2012
As I sat in my office today, listening to Christmas music and trying to cross things off of my to-do list, I received such a lovely surprise from my mom. It was a reminder to me that even the simplest gestures can make a huge impact on the joy of another during the holiday season.
Back in July, we gave my mom’s preschool class all of the leftover picture frames from the One Fine Day for the United Way golf tournament and day at Keswick Hall. The frames were a generous donation from First Systems & Resources, a local, family-owned printing and promotional products business. After the event, we realized that we had ordered about twenty too many and since the frames were engraved with the date, we couldn’t save them for next year’s event.
After hearing me talk about saving paper towel rolls and egg cartons for my mom’s class, the staff here thought that her group may really enjoy these picture frames. So, that weekend, I dropped off two tote bags full of frames for the preschool class at A.G. Richardson Elementary in Culpeper, Virginia.
It was so long ago that our staff had nearly forgotten about the frames. We were all surprised when my mom’s email came this morning filled with pictures of the children in her class, proudly holding up their newly decorated picture frames.
These simple wooden rectangles that were once meant for the participants in our summer event have now been transformed into beautiful, thoughtful Christmas creations for these children to share with their families this year. The children she works with had a wonderful time sprinkling the frames with glitter, adorning them with stickers and personalizing them as a gift for their family.
All of this reminds me that what may seem like an item we would normally put in the trashcan or recycling bin could be transformed into a beautiful and meaningful piece of artwork. I am so happy that each of these students had something to take home after school yesterday that they were proud of and excited about.
We can all make a difference. Not only during the holiday season, but all year. Whether you have an hour to spend with someone at a nursing home, five dollars to donate to a local charity or a bag of saved paper towel rolls for school craft projects, you can make a significant difference in the life of someone else.
A special thanks to Ms. Cain and Ms. Jarrell’s preschool class for sharing their artwork with us!
Wishing each of you a safe, peaceful and joyous holiday!
Posted by: Jessica Snyder, United Way Volunteer Center Director
Years ago, when I was working at a nonprofit in another state, I had an assistant who was one of the most outgoing, happy and hardworking persons I have ever met. She was also the same age as me (30) and had a 14 year old daughter. Yes, the math says she was 16 when she became a mother. One day, as we were driving to a meeting, she pointed out a large evergreen bush in front of an unoccupied industrial building. She told me the story of how one year, she could not afford a Christmas tree and so instead took a very large branch from the back of that bush and brought it home and decorated it for her young daughter.
Having grown up in a protected suburban bubble, this was the first time I had realized that for many families, a Christmas tree is a big expense. Perhaps that is why I so wholeheartedly embraced the Target stores’ Share-A-Tree program when their store opened in Charlottesville.
For 21 years, Target stores across the country have donated a couple of special display Christmas trees to their local United Way to give to families or a local nonprofit organization. We are so fortunate that our local store manager may actually be Santa’s special envoy, because he donates ALL of the store’s display Christmas trees to us each year. This year there were 24 trees.
We try to spread the joy every year by working with a different local organization to identify families who are struggling to make ends meet. These artificial trees enable families to keep money in their pockets each holiday season by eliminating the need to purchase a new tree each year. Whether you are a real or fake tree aficionado, you can agree that this makes good economic sense for these families.
In past years, we have worked with the Charlottesville City Public Housing Association of Residents, Love Inc.(which put us in touch with local churches), MACAA and GRACE in Greene County. This year, it was not hard to see that the people in hard-hit Louisa County, the epicenter of the August earthquake, could use some extra holiday cheer. So we contacted Donna Isom at the Louisa Resource Council, who immediately began finding homes for the trees. Two of the trees, which were quite high-tech looking as they were made of black tinsel, were given to Computers4Kids here in Charlottesville, to be decorated using a technology theme.
Ryan McKillip, regional manager of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, has provided us with a box truck for the fourth year in a row, and looks forward to volunteering to pick up and deliver the trees each year. Henry Graff, reporter for NBC29, joined as a volunteer last year when we delivered to his Greene County neighbors, and has now made this an annual volunteer effort (of course producing a news story along the way). The three of us are beginning to be a well-oiled machine.
Here is the link to our still photos from the day, and below is Henry’s story.
In addition, Bryan McKenzie of The Daily Progress, put his signature spin on the story in his column this week. Many thanks to the good folks at Target’s national headquarters, and many more to the employees of our local store for embracing and enhancing this wonderful concept.
Give. Advocate. Volunteer. That is what is means to Live United.
Posted by: Kim Connolly
We here at the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area have always known that Caroline Emerson, our Vice President and Campaign Director, is an amazing person. Now, because of this profile in Charlottesville Woman's blog, those who have not have the good fortune of meeting Caroline (yet!) can get to know her fun, positive personality. Read the blog post here.
Caroline keeps us all laughing and her positive outlook on everything is infectious. Although her job is serious - raising funds to help improve lives for those struggling in our community, Caroline has a way of bringing such energy to her work, that you can't help but get caught up in the cause. Who wouldn't want to work with a bright, fun, dedicated person like that each and every day? We know we are all lucky.
Posted by Kim Connolly
In this season of Thanksgiving, we at the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area are thankful for the many people and organizations who choose to support us. We are fortunate to have a wide variety of donors, ranging from large corporations to small businesses, schoolchildren to college professors and anyone in between.
One recent donor stands out particularly in my mind: a woman who came to our office to hand-deliver her gift of $2 cash. I have met this lady before and know her well enough to know that she lives on a very limited income. While $2 may seem like a small amount to some people, it was a generous gift for her, considering her limited resources. I doubt she has a car, so I was particularly touched that she cared enough to take the time and effort to come deliver her gift in person.
Every donor is important. Every gift we receive, regardless of size, combines with others to create a lasting impact in our community. With these generous donations, we advance our goals of School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency, and Community Health. We all win when a child succeeds in school, when families are financially stable, and when our neighbors are healthy. United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area appreciates all of our supporters who help make our community a better place to live.
Posted by Alaina Schroeder
Its official: our United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring season has come to a close. On Friday, October 21, more than forty of our neighbors at Hantzmon Wiebel set out to complete five of the projects that were either not completed in September or hadn’t been finished that day.
The folks at the venerable accounting firm are in the middle of a busy season in September and can’t participate during our United Way Day of Caring, so we always appreciate their commitment to participate in October.
Their day kicked off with a few quick speakers and a delicious barbecue lunch in their parking lot. Afterwards, the teams headed out to their project sites and some of the United Way staff ventured out to visit the sites.
Kim Connolly and I had the pleasure of visiting the teams at the Ronald McDonald House, Ivy Creek Foundation and Woodbrook Elementary School. The teams were accomplishing huge projects for these nonprofits and schools including demolishing old wells, removing invasive plants, installing patios, and painting furniture. Most importantly, each group of volunteers was smiling and talking about the connections that had been made with the nonprofit or school they were volunteering with.
As we wrap up the United Way Day of Caring season, I can’t help but to reflect on my first year working with this event and the results that I hope came from the projects.
I am left feeling so optimistic about the community and the possibilities of the impact this event has and will continue to have on all of us. Now that we’ve wrapped up the projects, I am eager to get to work on next year’s event to make sure that it is more successful, more impactful and more meaningful than ever!
Posted by Jessica Snyder, United Way Volunteer Center Director
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