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The United Way serving Clinton, Essex and Franklin Counties has met the 2010 campaign goal of $700,000. The annual campaign is conducted primarily during the fall months and concludes in January of each year. This year’s campaign raised a total of $740,700.00, which includes proceeds from special events. John Bernardi, Executive Director, said “we are so delighted to deliver this exciting news to our three county region. It is once again a testament to the generosity and caring nature of the north country”. Jamie Basiliere, Executive Director of the Child Care Coordinating Council, was the chair of this year’s drive and has volunteered on the campaign team for several years. She said, “It was a great team effort with campaign team volunteers, United Way staff and employee campaign representatives, but most of all, it was the generosity of businesses, organizations and individuals that made it successful”. The next campaign will be chaired by Kirk Stallsmith, General Manager of Georgia Pacific and vice chair of this year’s drive. Other campaign team members included: Jake Short, Lisa VanNatten, Steve Preston, Alan Jones, Tom Koester, Ellen Gordon, Bruce Gray, Phil Racine, Deena McCullough, Marge Garcia, Jeremiah Papineau, Dan Alexander, Gayle Alexander, Betsy Senkowski, Jerry Morrow, Scott Wilson, Vickie Marking, Jan Garrett, Marion Daniels and Kathy Snow.

The mission of the United Way, which serves Clinton, Essex and Franklin Counties, is to be a leader in community partnership building and to increase the organized capacity of people to care for one another. The funds raised from this campaign will be allocated to local community partner agencies based on donor designations and agency applications for additional funds. A committee of community members will review requests for undesignated funds and recommend to the board of directors the awarding of grants based upon prioritized community needs throughout the region. Sue LeBlanc, Relationship Associate at Key Bank and President of the United Way Board of Directors said, “All the funds stay local and go toward supporting critical services for our friends and neighbors here in the North Country”. In addition to funding thirty three health and human service organizations in the region, the local United Way also coordinates a wide variety of programs including, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), 2-1-1 Information and Referral, Disaster Preparedness and other community based initiatives. Last year, the network supported by the United Way provided service to nearly eighty thousand people throughout Clinton, Essex and Franklin Counties.

United Way of the Adirondack Region, Inc. * 45 Tom Miller Road * Plattsburgh, NY 12901