United Way is the right way

On Tuesday morning, Kingston renewed its commitment what’s become an annual tradition in many communities across Canada: the United Way fundraising drive. The Kingston, Frontenac Lennox and Addington organization is remarkably successful; for 13 years in a row it has more than accomplished its fundraising goals. Last year, setting its sights on $3.2 million, it raised $3.327 million. This year, it’s aiming to top even that, setting its goal for 2012 at $3.35 million.

The goal was announced at the annual kick-off breakfast, at which hundreds of volunteers gathered to share their plans for the coming campaign. Some groups have already begun to raise money. Some groups’ goals are modest; some are astonishing. All are admirable and worthy of our support and gratitude. Because all this money raised is dispersed back into the community, to the people and places who needed most.

The array of services supported by agencies receiving United Way funding encompasses every element of life in our city. They provide basic food and shelter for struggling families. They protect and counsel victims of abuse – women, children, the elderly. They improve people’s health and welfare, from helping substance abusers get clean to helping people in need get everything from dental care to vision care to devices to assist mobility. They provide kids with school supplies. They provide kids with school lunches. And they help kids – and adults – achieve the literacy they need to succeed. The United Way supports all this and more through ongoing funding for worthwhile programs, and by providing one-time grants for specific projects and initiatives. The one thing all these efforts have in common is that they make our city a better place.

So when someone in your workplace or neighbourhood comes around asking you to pitch in and make a donation, or take part in a fundraising activity, please help out. If your workplace doesn’t have a United Way program, why not start one? Another way the United Way benefits the community is by fostering a spirit of volunteerism, and giving that spirit an outlet.

Our United Way is so successful that it’s easy to take it for granted, to assume it will reach its ambitious goals whether we, as individuals, contribute or not. But the truth is the opposite: without thousands of individual contributions and efforts, goals are just numbers. With your help they become food and shelter, education and counselling, health and safety, growth and creativity – all the things that make a community better. We wish the best of luck to the fundraisers. If we all pitch in, we can expect another record-setting year.

Source: The Whig-Standard