United Way over the top

In the News
November 29, 2012 –

United Way over the top

It was a number Lloyd Fleming wished he didn’t have to announce.

The chairman of this year’s United Way campaign stood before a packed ballroom at the Ambassador hotel and resort Thursday morning and directed a line of students standing on the stage to turn over the boxes that displayed this year’s final amount of money raised.

It was a record figure: $3,403,260. That’s 1.6% higher than the goal set earlier in the fall and more than two per cent higher than the 2011 campaign.

“I wish we didn’t have to raise the money but we know we have to,” Fleming said as the volunteers who ran the workplace campaigns slowly filed out at the end of the touchdown breakfast. “We know the need is increasing every year.”

The numbers tell the story.

Sixty-three member agencies with 80 programs and services were funded by the United Way in 2011, helping 85,000 people. To provide the money needed this year, 2,000 volunteers ran campaigns in 400 workplaces in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington.

“Some 78 days have passed since we met in this very room to launch the most ambitious United Way campaign in Kingston, Frontenac Lennox and Addington’s history,” Fleming told the volunteers during the touchdown breakfast.

“It wasn’t going to be an easy task for any of us.”

Economic pressures and workplace downturns meant it was a “tough campaign,” for some of the work sites, he said.

“We had a few bumps in the road due to some workplace pressures but there were other campaigns that just truly blew us away and over-achieved their goal. So when you add it all up we did a very good job in this community again to set a record achievement. We should all feel good about living in a community that cares about the well being of those among us who are in the greatest need.”

He said he was impressed by the drive of the volunteers who ran the workplace campaigns and

was particularly impressed with the youth “who continue to amaze me with their creativity and their passion.”

“I am extremely confident our future United Way campaigns will be in good hands.”

Fleming, the vice-president for central and northern Ontario with BMO Bank of Montreal, has been involved with the United Way for years and plans to maintain that involvement now his time as campaign chairman is ending.

“I will never leave the United Way. The United Way gets in your blood.”

He appreciated the chance to learn more about the member agencies.

“What opened my eyes is the Seeing is Believing tour,” he said. The tour takes campaign workers around to several of the agencies so they can see how the money raised is being spent.

“Those are agencies in this town that you drive by every day,” he said. “When you walk in the front door of some of these places and you realize the good services they provide to people in need in this community, it’s shocking that the need is there.”

He praised the passion and commitment of the people who work in those agencies.

“They’re angels. The easiest part is to raise the money to allow them to do their work.”

He said the organizers are concerned about the ever-increasing campaign goal and the pressure it places on a public always being asked to donate money to good causes.

“You always worry about donor fatigue, of course, but we had some campaigns that over-achieved this year and why does that happen? Because they care and they show that in their pledges. And here we are, a record achievement for the United Way.”

Some of the amounts raised by the various workplaces are staggering. At Queen’s University they raised $345,000 while the army base passed their goal of $240,000. Goodyear in Napanee donated $121,000. Even smaller workplaces gave their fair share. KEDCO came up with $2,000 while the Boys and Girls Club donated almost $3,000. Many of the work sites boasted 100 per cent participation.

One of the people helped by the United Way spoke at the touchdown breakfast.

John Dickson had been a client of Home-based Housing and was part of the speakers’ bureau for the United Way campaign last year, telling volunteers at the 2011 kick-off how the agency had changed his life.

It changed even more part way through the campaign when a cerebral hemorrhage almost cost him his life.

He was back on the stage Thursday morning to thank the volunteers for their continued work.

“You people have done remarkable things. You are the wheels that move this campaign,” he said.

“My campaign was a lot busier this year. I did probably twice the amount of speeches I did last year because last year I had my feet up having a cerebral hemorrhage.”

He talked about the effect the help from the United Way had on his life.

“The United Way continues to help me find out who it is that I might actually be. I know it seems a little late to go from poverty to possibilities but here I am just past 45 and still on the edge of possibility. I feel like I am heading somewhere but it is a hard job. It is a hard job for all of us who want to change our way of life, who want to change our way of thinking.”

He noted more than 80,000 people are helped by member agencies each year.

“Eight-five thousand people is almost a third of this county. So you helped almost a third of this county last year. Not everybody is going to tell you they went to the United Way agencies but one person away from you has to use the United Way at some point this year. So please don’t think it’s a far away thing.”

He said no one knows when they might need help from a United Way agency.

“I was planning to have lunch with my workers the day that my brain stem exploded. Life changes between seconds, just like that. Take everything you can get and give what you can back. I was thrown back so that I could do this. So I take this very seriously.”

He said he is slowly starting to get back to normal.

“I am starting to feel like a person who can really give back to his community.”

Source: Michael Lea, Kingston Whig Standard