United Way Kickoff Chat
September 27, 2011
United Way Executive Director Jami Reever and Co-Drive Chair Becky Collins will be here to answer questions about the 2012 United Way Campaign.
Moderator: Today was the official kickoff of the 2012 United Way Fundraising Campaign and we have invited Executive Director Jami Reever and Campaign Co-Chair Becky Collins to chat with us about the United Way and this years efforts. We have a lot of questions to cover so we will get things going with the first question.
moderator: What is the goal and mission of the United Way?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: The goal of the United Way of the Flint Hills is to provide those who live in our community with access to the tools, services, and programs they need to improve their lives and build a better community. To do this, we raise funds each year to distribute to those organizations that have a proven track record of serving those in need, as well as those who want to take advantage of the tremendous educational and empowerment programs in our community.
moderator: What Agencies does the United Way of the Flint Hills Support?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: The United Way supports 21 organizations throughout an eight county area. Most of the programs are based in Emporia and provide services in the surrounding counties, and we also fund programs in Council Grove, Cottonwood Falls, Burlington. The United Way Community Partners are, without a doubt, some of the hardest working organizations that I have ever seen and I value all that they do to reach over 10,000 people annually. To see a list of our partners, please visit our website at www.uwfh.org.
moderator: What is the goal for the 2012 fundraising campaign?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: Just about an hour ago, we announced that our goal is $575,000 for this year. We think that this is an amount we can reach and it will have a tremendous impact on our community. This is a decrease from last year’s goal, and we decided on this goal after months of conversations with business and community leaders and former drive chairs. We live in a generous community, and we are tremendously optimistic that this goal can be reached…we hope everyone will join with us to make is happen!
moderator: This year you have Co-Chairs for the fundraising drive, what benefits will this offer over having just one chair?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: We are really excited that we changed up our format this year. We have already seen the benefits. This model allows the co-chairs to share the workload (and the stress!) and divide up all of the tasks that need to be taken care of. We have presentations at all times of day (we may even have a 2:00 a.m. presentation this year) throughout the area and given that our drive chairs both have full-time jobs, this allows us to have greater flexibility in going to all of the meetings and presentations. The truly best part is that we have twice the energy, twice the ideas, and twice the excitement, and we think our campaign will benefit tremendously from that.
moderator: Becky, What pushed you to be involved in the United Way as a Campaign Chair?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: I have been involved with the United Way for years, and I think this is one way to touch many, many lives with the 21 community partners we have. I have seen the impact these organizations have on our community, and the more I can do to raise awareness about their work and the work of the United Way, the stronger our community will be. I am honored to be a co-chair this year!
moderator: How did this years kick start campaign go? Who all participated in that part of the campaign?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: It was completely awesome -- maybe even the best ever! Sacred Heart School students performed some amazing songs, and we celebrated our Pacesetter companies who all ran pretty amazing campaigns. They reported in on their numbers, and we saw campaigns that doubled their contributions from last year or had increases ranging from 7%-25%. It was inspiring to see how they Lead the Way for our community! And then we also spoke about our work in Reading over the past summer and a Reading resident, Nicole Senft, shared her story from the night of the tornado and what it has been like over the past four months. Her family’s story is so moving and it showed us that our work in Reading has been so critical. All in all, it was a great event!
moderator: What is the plan of action for the next couple of months of the campaign?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: We are going to raise $575,000! We are going to get into the community and raise community awareness about the United Way and our 21 community partners and we are going to keep telling the stories about why these organizations deserve our support.
moderator: If people are interested in donating who should they contact?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: Please call us at 620-342-7564 or visit our website www.uwfh.org and make an online donation. To stay connected to the United Way of the Flint Hills, like us on Facebook for regular updates on the campaign and all of our activities.
moderator: Any other thoughts that you would like to share with our readers?
Jami Reever & Becky Collins: More than anything, we want to say thank you for your support of the campaign. It is going to be a great year…we hope everyone will take part in the campaign, whether it’s through a direct donation or participating in the workplace campaign or by dining united (the first Dine United is this Thursday at Planet Sub. 20% of their sales for the day will go to United Way!) or wearing jeans to work for the United Way. When added up, all of these different kinds of fundraisers make a huge difference in our community!
Moderator: Well it looks like that are all the questions we have today so on behalf of the Emporia Gazette and its readers I would like to thank Jami and Becky for taking time to chat with us today. Be sure to contact the United Way to make your contribution and help them achieve their goal.