United Way Stands Together, Kicks Off 2018 Campaign

OSWEGO – Together, we stand united; and, when we do that, the entire community benefits. That was the message delivered Wednesday at the United Way of Greater Oswego County’s annual campaign kickoff meeting at The American Foundry.

The United Way didn’t set a specific goal for the campaign.

“We focus on results,” Patrick Dewine, executive director, explained. “Reaching out into the community; hitting the three major areas of helping children and youth succeed, health and well being, and ending hunger are our primary focus.”

This is the start of their new campaign. It runs until United Way’s annual meeting in March.

“Campaigns run so whacky,” Dewine said. “We’re still collecting donations from 2014 and ’15. That’s just the way some companies do their payroll deductions regarding donations. I don’t know, it goes up to Heaven and comes back down. We have a small handful of companies that we’re still collecting from. We’re always running a three-year campaign so to speak.”

Some groups will start their campaigns now, others may start next week while some get going in December, he added.

Guest speaker, Stacy Alvord, director of the county’s Department of Social Services, told the crowd what living united means.

She told the parable of the farmer who supported his community by helping his neighbors.

The farmer grew the best corn around. Someone asked him how he did it. The farmer explained he gave his best seed to his neighbor.

The wind picks up polled with the ripening of corn and swirls it from field to field, the farmer pointed out.

“If my neighbor grows inferior corn, cross-pollination will degrade the quality of my corn,” he said. “So if I am to grow good corn, my neighbor must also grow good corn.”

That farmer knew about the connectiveness of life, “that we’re all connected,” Alvord said. “That those who live in peace must help their neighbors live in peace. Those who live well must help others to live well. The welfare of each one of us is bound up in the welfare of us all. We must live united.”

You don’t have to donate through your work. Individuals may also donate to the United Way.

They will be sending out 1,000 info letters in the near future.

“I’ll sign them all individually,” Dewine said. “I sit there with a brand new pack of pens and I just start signing my name. At the very beginning it looks fine but by the time I get to around 900 it looks like a second grader’s handwriting.”

The United Way of Greater Oswego County is its own entity. It’s one of 1,800 United Ways worldwide.

Every two years, the Allocation Committee reviews those under the local United Way’s umbrella and determines the amount of assistance each will receive. The next time will be in May 2018. Then, the funding amount will begin in January 2019 for two years.

“Volunteers go to each agency that has applied for funding for a visit and then they come back to the full committee with recommendations” he explained.

There are 31 programs currently under the United Way umbrella. They were able to add four new programs:
• The Pulaski Community Cupboard
• Girls Rock at the Fulton YMCA
• The Salvation Army’s Bridging the Gap
• Smoke Free for My Baby and Me.

“It’s not just people who are looking for food and shelter and services,” the director said. “It’s a lot of other programs.”

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