United Way Tops Fundraising Goal

Today, Scott and Stacey Ewing, and their Volunteer Cabinet, announced the total dollars raised and pledged for the 2012 annual campaign. This year’s campaign achieved a total of $2,045,843. This is an 9% increase over last year’s total of $1,876,775 and $33,843 over the goal set in August of $2,012,000.

Stacey Ewing is visibly proud. “Our campaign theme is the United Way’s National Tag Line – Change Starts Here. With the dollars raised in this community campaign, lasting change can continue and lasting change can start for so many individuals and so many families. It is a tremendous day for all of them, and it is a tremendous day for all of us.

Way back in March, when all of this began, Scott and I visited the many agencies these dollars will help support. We are so pleased to be able to announce to them, and to the families they are helping, the achievement of this goal. They know, as do many of you, this goal was not a number picked out of thin air. The goal was based on what these agencies need in order to do their work. It was based on what additional programs are supported by donor designations, by grants made through the Women’s Leadership Council and by the program and service needs of United Way itself. And we did it. You did it. What a tremendous demonstration of your belief and your confidence in the possibility of positive change. Change does indeed start here!” Scott Ewing continues. “There are so many workplaces and people to thank for their help.

The growth in contributions from the Agriculture Sector especially. What a wonderful acknowledgment of the work of United Way’s programs and services and the reach of positive outcomes into every urban and rural corner of Chatham-Kent. We are so appreciative of their Bushel of Hope, L’il Green and Plant an Acre donations and we want to give a very special shout-out to the anonymous rural donor whose $50,000 gift – our largest anonymous gift ever – was indeed a blessing to this year’s campaign. Countless volunteers. Hundreds of special event organizers. Canvassers and agency representatives. Media voices and community leaders. Most everywhere we went we felt supported and encouraged and we knew, right from the very beginning, that a community that believes in itself – as this one does – is a community that can know and understand and believe and then act with generosity.

We are so very proud to have been a part of this achievement. The Cabinet and campaign volunteers and the staff at United Way are so very committed to this community and worked so very hard to help achieve this result.

Chatham-Kent will certainly receive national attention – not just for reaching a campaign goal – but for being such an invested community, for being such an engaged community, for being the kind of community where people want to live, want to work, and want to raise their families. This is a Chatham-Kent and United Way is an organization we can all celebrate, we can all be truly proud of.”

The Chatham-Kent Touchdown was a unique two-site event held first to mark the dedication of the Perry Molema Memorial Skating Rink inside the King Street Commons at the Downtown Chatham Centre. Representatives from across the community were on hand to acknowledge the individual community achievements.

Chatham and area raised $1,438,389
Tilbury and area raised $ 145,534
Wallaceburg and area raised $ 138,463
Dresden and area raised $ 58,161
Blenheim and area raised $ 190,515
Ridgetown and area raised $ 43,772
Thamesville and area raised $ 11,084
Bothwell and area raised $ 19,925

The celebration then moved to the United Way Centre For Community Innovation – The 425 – where volunteers and donors enjoyed hors d’oeuvres catered in by DeGusto’s and Syd Rivers.

The celebration continued with volunteers, staff, donors and agency representatives enjoying the fruits of a very successful campaign effort.

Stacey concluded the evening: “there are so many volunteers to thank and thousands of individual and corporate donors who have contributed to this result. The real winners will always be those families and individuals who will receive help and hope as a result of the programs, services and agencies funded by these donations. Scott and I are proud to have been a part of this fundraising experience. We will never forget the amazing people we met, the deep caring of the people working in the agencies we visited, and the tremendous generosity of the donors. Thank you so much.”