Back to School - new beginnings

This is a very busy and exciting week at United Way as it is also for children and teachers around the Valley. While the first day of school for students is staggered between this week and next, all of the teachers will be back this week. It's an exciting time for all of them, and also for us as we will be getting an early start on this year's Community Campaign with meetings with teachers in Seymour, Derby and Shelton this week.

Those three schools traditionally run their United Way campaigns with their welcoming and in-service training programs for the teachers. It's a very upbeat time, and Laurel and myself really enjoy making presentations to the teachers as we are both former teachers in Valley school systems ourselves so it gives us a chance to renew old friendships at the same time that we do the campaigns.

Teachers in the Valley have always been generous supporters of United Way and I think that they see the value of services provided to community nonprofits to their students on almost a daily basis.

Our relationship with the schools has been a very strong one, and we will have another remarkable example of this on Thursday when our Volunteer Center's Corporate Volunteer Council holds their annual Back-to-School Clothes-for-Kids party at Irving School in Derby. The Council adopts a Valley school every year and clothes needy children for the start of the new school year. They rotate among the Valley towns, and this year they are back in Derby which was the site of the very first program in 1996. This year they are working with both Irving and Bradley Schools and over 200 children will receive clothing at the reception at Irving School on Thursday. We'll have plenty of coverage on our website later in the week, but this is one of the great "feel good" days of the entire year as you will see with the coverage this week.

We have plenty of other involvements with the schools ranging from our role with the Discovery early education programs to the High School Volunteer Council. During the last school year, I had the pleasure to serve on Shelton's Early Childhood Development Steering Committee and Derby's C.I.A.C. Athletic Review Committee. At Valley United Way, we believe very strongly in the work of the educational system in the Valley and appreciate the opportunity to assist where we can.

Just as the schools are beginning a new year, this is also the start of a new United Way Community Campaign, and we are pleased that we share in each others work and opportunities to make the Valley a better place to live and work.

Shelton Early Childhood Development

Steering Committee

2-1-1, a United Way partnership with the State of Connecticut

The other day, I had my first tour of the 2-1-1 call center at United Way of Connecticut in Rocky Hill, and it was very impressive. We've written before about the incredible services offered by 2-1-1 and their most recent statistics are on our website. The numbers somehow seem even more impressive after visiting the call center and seeing just how efficient the operation is.

Connecticut was the first state in the country to adopt 2-1-1 statewide as a 24 hour a day, 365 day-a-year information and referral service. When I first started at Valley United Way, there were several regional call centers located throughout the state. Several years ago, it was determined that a consolidated call center would better service the state and the one center in Rocky Hill was established. It is a very high tech operation very similar to call centers operated by many commercial businesses.

The center's staff operates three shifts a day, and they are highly qualified with a minimum of a bachelor's degree and one year of equivalent service. In addition to those who handle the calls, additional staff members manage the database with its listing of thousands of services available throughout the state. On top of that, it requires a very skilled IT staff to keep the computer and phone systems working efficiently.

In addition to the generic services offered by 2-1-1, there are additional specialized services such as 2-1-1 Childcare, Child Development Infoline, HUSKY Infoline and Care 4 Kids. They handle over 450,000 calls per year, including the ability to handle multi-lingual calls.

They also maintain a very useful website and a second website called the 2-1-1 Navigator that allows people to quickly determine their eligibility for 24 state and federal programs related to health, food, child care and much more.

Connecticut's 2-1-1 is the national model for a successful information and referral service and is a unique partnership between the State of Connecticut and local United Ways that benefits all the residents of the state. After visiting the call center, i have a much greater appreciation for just how complex a job that it is - and how well it is being handled.

A Senior Moment

Last week I had the good fortune to participate in the 2009 Senior Games in California. Modeled after the traditional Olympics, the event drew more than 10,000 "athletes" from all across America. Competitors aged 50 and above competed in 27 different sports ranging from Archery to Track and Field. Within each of the sports, divisions are held in five year age increments. Most of the events were held on the campus at Stanford University with Humana, one of the county's largest health insurers, as the main sponsor. Other events were held throughout the San Francisco Bay area. The Stanford campus is spectacular and its athletic facilities are world class. It's easy to see why they have annually have the number one rated NCAA Division I athletic program once you have seen the facilities.

My particular sport is basketball, and I was the boys basketball coach at Shelton High School for 10 years before coming to United Way. There were about 30 teams in our division from all across the country who qualified a year earlier by finishing first or second in their state competition. In my case, we were the representatives from Connecticut though we actually won the state tournaments in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Jersey as well as Connecticut last year and could have represented any one of them.

As the graying of America becomes a major issue facing our country, events such as the Senior Games showcase another side of the aging issue. With most of the country currently fixated on the debate over health care, most of the attention is centered on the health costs of getting older. One way to help control those costs is to foster healthy life styles, and that is the great story of the Senior Games. The 10,000 competitors ranged in age from 50 to a 100 year old who was registered for tennis and bowling! What they all had in common was a desire to be fit and to compete. And from what I saw, they are succeeding. And the message that they are sending is that we need to encourage more people to maintain an active, healthy life style for as long as possible. Not everyone is going to win a gold medal at the Senior Games, but you never know if you don't try.

Getting back to the basketball, we did not win our age group. We won six games and lost three with all three of the losses coming down to the very last possession of the game. One of our wins was also at the buzzer in overtime. We played teams from New York, Nevada, Texas, Delaware, Illinois and Hawaii. Though I am disappointed that we didn't win the, we were more than competitive. I never expected to still be playing basketball at my age, but after seeing teams competing in an 80+ category maybe I've still got some years left after all!

Themed CVC Dress Down Days support 2009 Back to School Clothes for Kids!

When Maria DeMaio, CVC member and Senior Accounting Manager for Fletcher-Thompson, Inc. was thinking about how to raise money to adopt children for the Back to School Clothes for Kids she asked her Special Event Committee to come up with some ideas.

Patti Deer, FT committee member, came up with the idea to set aside three Fridays and do something different on each one. The first Friday was “hat day” the next was “shorts day” and the third Friday was “tacky tourist day”! Everybody was really happy to pay $2.00 for the opportunity and support the kids and wear some fun stuff.

This picture is a group who dressed up for the “”tacky tourist day”! I think you can see they had some real fun!

Fletcher-Thompson has adopted two children and will be at Irving School on August 27th at 2pm to meet their adopted children. They will get to see first hand the kids open the box and see everything that was personally bought for them!

As Maria said, “It was a fun way to raise money for the Back to School Kids.”
Please share how your company is participating in the 2009 Back to School Clothes for Kids Program and send along a picture! Share your idea! You might inspire another company to do the same project and copy it (best form of flattery) or put their on spin on it.

Just think about that Thursday August 27th when the Irving School gym will be filled with laughter and smiles from 212 ecstatic children. They never would have all of these special things for school if it wasn’t for you!

I look forward to hearing from you….patricia.tarasovic@valleyunitedway.org