Monday, November 1, 2010

United Way legacy is its volunteer leadership

 The last few weeks have not left me with much time to update this blog because there have been so many good things going on at Valley United Way. We are in the midst of the Annual Community Campaign, and we have had some incredible campaigns this year with some unbelievable creativity. If you have been following our website, you would have seen executives dressed up as outlaws, corporate work spaces turned into golf courses and breakfast and dessert being served up to employees. We want to thank Iroquois Gas Transmission, BIC, and Blum Shapiro for some of those efforts. We also want to thank Larry Janesky for his generous incentive to the employees at Basement Systems as part of their campaign. And finally, we want to welcome Hubbell to the fold as they are running their first campaign for Valley United Way in their new Shelton location. Keep watching for campaign updates on the web.

Our Corporate Volunteer Council was presented with Birmingham group Health Services' "Corporate Good Neighbor Award", and our High School Council Volunteer Council held its first meeting of the year. Youth Leadership members elected their officers for the year, and they are getting ready for their annual allocations process. Nineteen agencies have also submitted applications for Special Needs Grants from Valley United Way which will be awarded in December.

However, what I wanted to really talk about today is the legacy left by the men and women who have headed the Valley United Way since its inception in 1968 when the United Funds and Community Chests in the Valley Came together as one regional organization. We finally got around to developing a listing of all those people who served as presidents, board chairs and campaign chairs down through the years and have posted them on our website. It's quite a listing, and I would urge you to take a look. You can find it at http://www.valleyunitedway.org/board.html.

We have been very fortunate to have had so many outstanding volunteers who gave so much of themselves for the benefit of the community. They were drawn from all walks of life in the Valley and serve as models for others to follow.

As I said at the beginning, it has been a very busy month at Valley United Way, but we owe a debt of gratitude not only to those who work so hard today, but to all those who came before to make Valley United Way the organization that it is today.




For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.

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