Campaign Celebration

United Way of Story County closed another successful annual campaign with an impressive $2,055,688 pledged by more than 3,300 donors. UWSC celebrated with community members at CityChurch on Thursday, December 16.

With the announcement of the total dollars raised, UWSC also recognized many local organizations and businesses for impressive contributions to the vision and mission of United Way at the awards celebration.

Two community impact award winners are highlighted at the Celebration each year; one to a collaboration or program that is working effectively to impact the lives of individuals and families in Story County and also to a community impact champion, an individual or business that has shown significant dedication to work in health, education, and/or financial stability through volunteerism and advocacy.

The Collaboration and Innovation Award illustrates a key value: “we are stronger together”, and emphasizes opportunities to work collaboratively to build diversity and inclusion. Whether the change be incremental or significant, this award honors successful strategies to move the needle on common good in the areas of health, education, and financial stability. 

The recipient of this year’s award is Story County Quality of Life Alliance also known as SCQLA. This 21 year old collaboration involves many in our community. Lead by Story County Public Health and Mary Greeley Medical Center Home Health director Les White, SCQLA also includes representatives from BooST Together for Children, Central Iowa Community Service, City of Ames, Community and Family Resources, Healthiest Ames, Mary Greeley Medical Center, Mid Iowa Community Action Agency, Story County, Story County Medical Center, United Way of Story County, and YSS. The purpose of SCQLA is one; to conduct the Community Health Needs Assessment every 5 years as required by the Iowa Department of Public Health, and two; to share the results of that assessment with the community. The information gained through the Community Needs Assessment helps bolster applications for funding and also informs how best to invest resources. Local agencies and governmental entities have been able to use the findings to explain the needs as they apply for local and outside dollars, while ASSET funders and others use the data to help make investment decisions locally.

The Community Impact Champion Award recognizes an individual or business that has shown significant dedication to work in health, education, and/or financial stability through volunteerism and advocacy.

This year’s award was given to the Iowa State University athletes. These athletes create partnerships across our county, giving back to many local agencies and efforts. This past fall, athletes worked to assemble 200 literacy kits that included a free book, activities, and supplemental materials to inspire young children to read. Each volunteer with this team also hand-wrote a note of encouragement to the young readers. In addition to the literacy kits, ISU Student Athletes provided hands-on support in facilitating a large youth centered community engagement event that reached 700 children and youth. Plans are in the works for them also to provide help for UWSC’s annual food drive, where hundreds of pounds of food is distributed into the Story County community. ISU Student Athletes have been avid participants in UWSC’s annual Day of Caring spanning years of service. Their most recent project was cleaning, organizing, and painting at Good Neighbor in September. Their work in community volunteering extended through other agencies as well, including YSS and Boys & Girls Clubs. United Way also was able to partner with two athletes individually as interns. Joy Chou and Cordarrius Bailey served time and energy with UWSC as well as their partners focusing on advancing health, education, and financial stability.

LIVE UNITED Annual Campaign Awards were also given to businesses that met one or more of the following criteria: consistent, significant campaign contributions; new and significant campaign effort; special efforts to make the overall campaign successful. The 2021 awardees were American Packaging Corporation, City of Ames, Greater Iowa Credit Union, Iowa State University, State Bank and Trust, Vision Bank, and Wilson Toyota.

All Award Categories: