2014-09-08 - United Way of Story County 2014 Campaign Kicks Off
United Way of Story County (UWSC) kicked off the 2014 LIVE UNITED annual campaign on Friday, September 5 with a breakfast at The Plex in Ames. Although the campaign officially started on September 5, there were 13 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, Kreg Tool, Midwest Insurance, Nevada Schools, Reliance State Bank, Danfoss Power Solutions, State Bank and Trust, Target, and Todd and Sargent. The announced total pledged by these companies and Story County leadership givers at the kickoff event was $613,686 – which is about 30 percent of the $2,000,000 goal and the highest announced at this point ever. The amount raised is $58,000 more than last year at this time.
This year’s breakfast served more than 300 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: Jennifer Groat, Jane Jackson, Carolyn Manning, Shawnna Murphy and Elizabeth Wilt-Cable.
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 $600,000 from our pacesetters to kick-off the 2014 LIVE UNITED annual campaign. We appreciate all of our partners in the county who, not only help get the campaign off to a great start, but help improve lives throughout the year.”
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 65 projects submitted from 37 agencies. A record 864 volunteers, including 300 freshmen from the College of Human Sciences and several students from Ballard Schools, 40 area businesses and 18 various ISU departments participated! The efforts totaled more than 4,000 volunteer hours!
The Day of Caring committee members include: Amber Deardorff, Cathy Krebs, Anne Owens, Carla Persaud, Annie Randolph, Rick Schreier and Gail Sporleder.