FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
United Way Reaches Campaign Goal
The United Way of the Adirondack Region
has met the 2011 campaign goal of $750,000. 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 $756,200.00, 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”. Kirk
Stallsmith, General Manager at Georgia Pacific, was the chair of this year’s
drive and has volunteered on the campaign team for several years. He 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 Gerald Morrow, Chesterfield Town Supervisor and vice
chair of this year’s drive. Other campaign team members included: Jamie
Basiliere, Jake Short, Lisa VanNatten, Alan Jones, Ellen Gordon, Bruce Gray,
Phil Racine, Deena McCullough, Marge Garcia, Jeremiah Papineau, Dan Alexander,
Gayle Alexander, Betsy Senkowski, Scott Wilson, Ken Doyle, Courtney Chandler,
Bob Kidwell, Vickie Marking, Jan Garrett, Dale Ann Wolters, Marion Daniels,
Kathy Snow, Larry Pickreign and Leona Andrews.
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.
Susan LeBlanc, 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 six 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 health and human service network
supported by the United Way provided service to nearly eighty thousand people
throughout Clinton, Essex and Franklin Counties.
