United Way of Story County (UWSC) kicked off the 2015 LIVE UNITED annual campaign on Friday, September 11 with a breakfast at The Plex in Ames. Although the campaign officially started on September 11, there were 16 Pacesetter companies who held their UWSC campaigns early to give the campaign a strong start. This year’s Pacesetters included: Ames Chamber of Commerce, Ames Ford Lincoln, Ballard Schools, Bankers Trust, First National Bank, Greater Iowa Credit Union, Kinzler Construction Services, Kreg Tool, Midwest Insurance, Nevada Schools, Reliance State Bank, Danfoss Power Solutions, State Bank and Trust, Target, Todd and Sargent and United Way of Story County. The announced total pledged by these companies and Story County leadership givers at the kickoff event was $712,465 – which is about 34 percent of the $2,100,000 goal and the highest announced at this point ever.
This year’s breakfast served nearly 400 people. Those in attendance included UWSC board members, campaign volunteers, partner agencies, Iowa State University volunteers, elected officials and Day of Caring volunteers. Food for the breakfast was provided by Burgie’s Coffee, Burke Corporation, Fareway, Hy-Vee and Mary Greeley Medical Center.
The kickoff committee members included: Sheri Gatchel, Jennifer Groat, Carolyn Manning and Shawnna Murphy.
Jean Kresse, UWSC president and CEO said “United Way of Story County advances the common good by focusing on education, income and health, and we’re so fortunate the community has supported our efforts. We were thrilled to announce an all-time record of more than $712,000 from our pacesetters to kick-off the 2015 LIVE UNITED annual campaign. We appreciate all of our partners in the county who, not only support the campaign, but also understand that great things happen all year when we live united.”
The breakfast coincides with the annual Day of Caring, when employers across Story County provide their employees the opportunity to work on community service projects at UWSC partner agencies and other non-profit sites. Projects such as landscaping, painting, cleaning and organizing storage areas, setting up and serving meals, reading, making blankets and winterizing gardens were completed. By its very definition, the Day of Caring demonstrates what people are capable of doing and the differences they can make in just one day in the community. This year there were 55 projects submitted from 33 agencies. Nearly 600 volunteers, including 50 students from Iowa State University’s College of Human Sciences, 50 students from Ballard Schools, 30 area businesses and 22 various Iowa State departments participated! The efforts totaled more than 2,300 volunteer hours!
The Day of Caring committee members include: Amber Deardorff, Cathy Krebs, Anne Owens, Carla Persaud, Rick Schreier and Gail Sporleder.