The Garden City Telegram
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United Way at about 80 percent of its goal
Published 11/21/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
As the end of their annual fundraiser looms ahead, United Way campaigners have raised just more than 80 percent of their 2010 goal.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram From the left: United Way representative Mary Guy-Eves and Target volunteers Staci Wedermyer and April Kramer try to flag dowmn motorists for donations for the United Way near Kansas Avenue and Center street on Friday afternoon. The United Way is currently about $150,000 short of their goal for the year.
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Laurie Sisk/Telegram Q-97 peronality Bobby Wild collects donations of cash and perishable foods during a fundraising drive near Kansas Avenue and Center street on Friday afternoon. The United Way is currently about $150,000 short of their goal for the year. The food items will be donated to The Emmaus House, United Mexican American Ministries and the Salvation Army, all three of which are agencies served through the United Way.
Reaching the peak, however, is going to take an extra push, they said.
Several Finney County United Way volunteers tried to give the campaign that extra nudge as they rallied along Kansas Avenue near Center Street all day Friday to collect glove box change and bills and help the community coalition agency keep working toward it's $550,000 annual goal before mid-December, when the agency plans to report back to the community.
United Way Executive Director Margaret Anderson said even though the region hasn't seen the job losses or shuttering industries as in other parts of the country, local agencies are suffering from low donations and increased need for their services. Those factors dictated the United Way board's decision to raise its goal $50,000 from its 2009 campaign of half a million dollars, Anderson said.
"We're a local group that has to step up, if state and federal funding is low," Anderson said. "Whatever the community's problems are, they're our problems together."
As of this week, individuals and local businesses and their employees have given $446,242 to United Way, which plans to provide funding to 21 agencies within the county in 2010.
In her 14 years with the United Way campaigns, Anderson said, the agency has never been forced to allocate less money than it has said it would provide because it has always reached its goal.
In many years, as was the case last year when the agency raked in $543,000 in pledges with a $500,000 goal, the United Way was able to allocate more money than originally planned for local agencies. She hopes the same will hold true this year.
"We've done it before, so we're hoping to do it again," she said.
Late Friday afternoon, Lori Freese pulled her vehicle into the Western Kansas Broadcast Center, 1402 E. Kansas Ave., and dropped a few bills into a United Way can.
"I feel like I can give, so I did," said the Scott City resident, who was driving through town. "Anyone who can donate should, wherever they are."
Anderson said individuals and businesses still can donate to the agency through their local employer or by visiting www.gcnet.com/unitedway/.
This week's Leadership Givers -- donors who give $500 or more -- include the following individuals and businesses: Duane and Kathy Koster, E. Grant Larkin, D.D.S., Tim Hannigan D.D.S., Justin Kohlhorst, D.D.S., and United Vending (Tyson Food Service).
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