$600,000 Goal: Donors Urged Not Only to Give, but to Bridge Gap Between Those Who Have and Go Without
The United Way of Lewis County is amping up its efforts to help people in need over the coming year.
The annual fundraising campaign for perhaps Lewis County’s most prominent humanitarian nonprofit agency kicked off at Great Wolf Lodge in Rochester with its annual campaign kickoff lunchoen Wednesday. Organizers said the fundraising goal for the nonprofit stays the same as previous years at $600,000, but the agency will also be looking for ways the community can rally together to help eliminate poverty — something that became a big focus for the United Way at its board retreat last year.
“We’ve decided we’ll be on a mission for the next five years to find out how we can break the cycle of poverty,” said state Rep. Richard DeBolt, also a board member for United Way of Lewis County. “We have to teach our community to break the cycle of poverty. No one is going to do it for us.”
Needs in the community remain great, as evidenced by the money United Way allocated to member agencies from its general fund. The top two recipients this year were the Lewis County Food Bank Coalition, which received $39,500 this year — enough for 73,000 cans of food to be distributed among its eight member food banks — and The Salvation Army, which received $39,000 for its efforts in helping meet basic needs.
But as much as the United Way and donors across the area are working to meet those needs, they want to become part of a greater effort to initiate a conversation on poverty and bridge a major gap that exists between the middle-class and those who live poor day to day.
Portland-area speaker and author Donna Beegle, who would later speak Wednesday night at the Lewis County Community Health Forum on the same subject, addressed the crowd that filled the Great Wolf Lodge conference room on the critical importance of reaching out to the disadvantaged. She related her own personal experience of growing up in poverty and not getting her GED until she turned 26, but said a major breakthrough came when she was in college and realized there were people in the middle and upper class who wanted to lend a hand — but they just didn’t know how.
“You don’t have to be perfect, but you do have to be willing to help,” Beegle said. “I wouldn’t be standing here if community leaders like you didn’t care.”
Court Stanley, president of Port Blakely Tree Farms and campaign chair for this year’s fundraising effort, said a large part of that caring is to continue to give to those who go without.
“I think the best way is to set an example on how to give, and we can stem the tide of poverty in our community,” Stanley said.