Paddy Roach and I are continuing to make our corporate visits to managers, and CEOs all across the County gearing up to meet or surpass last year's record amount raised. So far, we have raised nearly $200,000 which would put us ahead of last year at this point in time.
Paddy and I look forward to meeting Amy Wettges who will be the Imperial Oil Employees campaign chair this year, our area's largest United Way Employee campaign.
The United Way Board of Directors approved a Venture Grant for the Big Sisters that was announced yesterday.
Pam Gallant, Chair of the United Way Community Investment Committee, was pleased to announce a $30,000 Venture Grant to the Big Sisters of Sarnia-Lambton for their Big Bunch Program.
Big Sisters provide mentoring to children across Lambton County deemed to be “at-risk” between the ages of 5 – 18 years. “The mentoring offered by a Big Sister has a profound and positive impact on a Little Sister. Results have shown that these girls and young women are less likely to get into trouble with police, become teen mothers, abuse drugs and/or alcohol, or drop out of school”, says Gallant.
Big Bunch is a group mentoring program that was specifically designed to provide service to the children and adolescents currently waiting to be matched with a Big Sister. Six girls from the waiting list are matched to three Big Sister volunteers and together they meet bi-weekly for a period of 6 months. Girls are grouped together by age to ensure that appropriate activities are arranged and to strengthen group dynamics and relationships. Girls can be placed in a Big Bunch group until they are matched to a one to one Big Sister on a longer term basis.
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( 3 / 60 )Thanks to early corporate donations, the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton campaign has reached $180,000 and is ahead of last year at this point in time.
We are starting to promote our Nordic Tenors Concert on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at Grace United Church. The Tenors, formerly known as the Royal Danish Tenors will have an even better show than their 2006 show as they will have two guest sopranos this year. Contact the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton office for more details and to order your tickets.
The annual Day of Caring will take place again this September on Tuesday the 16th. Invitations are just know being mailed out to employers asking for their participation.
Other events "in the works" includes another movie premiere from Skylight Films this fall, and perhaps a Lambton County dinner to be held in rural Lambton More details on this, and other events will be known so please check back often!
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It has been a very busy time at the United Way of late, and as a result, I have not been committing the time that I should be to my blog. I will put forth a greater effort in the future!
In the meantime, I was very pleased to received a $5,000 corporate donation from Dina Howson, and Bryan Meere from BMO. Dina is at the Exmouth street location, and Bryan is at the Lambton Mall Road branch.
Thanks to the generosity of BMO, and others in our community, the United Way has already raised over $180,000 towards our 2008 Campaign goal.
We will be setting out goal in June, and will announce the goal to the public closer to the Campaign.
We have already begun getting donations of stuck this year as donors are taking advantage of both high energy stock prices, and the tax advantages of donating stock. If you'd like to know about the tax incentives of donating stocks, drop me a line or call me directly and I would be happy to talk to you about that.
We will be at the Senior's Fair in Point Edward tomorrow and Wednesday. Admission is free so stop by and visit the United Way booth. Enter our free draw to win a pair of tickets for the Nordic Tenors show at Grace United on June 26, 2008.
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For the first time ever in Sarnia, we are pleased to announce the Startlight Film Festival.
At the Lambton Cinemas at 1450 London Road in Sarnia, secondary school students can enjoy a whole night's worth of movies, and complimentary popcorn, pop, and even coupons for the arcade.
Please note that all students attending must show valid student ID, and once you are in the theatre you may not leave without parental or guardian consent. Handbags maybe subject to search upon entry.
Five different movies will be shown, and they include: Dodgeball, The Benchwarmers, Accepted, Spiderman 2, and Happy Feet.
All proceeds to the United Way.
Date: April 25, 2008
Time: 11:45 PM Friday Night and runs until 7:00 AM.
Cost: $20.00
Contact: Paddy Roach
Telephone: 519 336-5452
E-Mail: roach@theunitedway.on.ca
Organization: United Way of Sarnia-Lambton
And, on Saturday, May 10th, 2008, we will be holding a day long financial forum. This will be your best opportunity to learn about taxes, investments, estate planning, and so many other financial topics.
On Thursday, June 26, 2008, the Nordic Tenors will make their return trip to Sarnia by popular demand. Tickets are already selling well.
For more information on all these events, please visit the coming events section of our website.
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( 2.8 / 31 )
At the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton Annual General Meeting last night, Pierre Soulard, a long time United Way Board Member, and Day of Caring volunteer presented the 2007 Dick White Day of Caring Award to RBC Financial. For many years, RBC has been involved in the Day of Caring and last year, employees from all branches across Lambton participated. At the presentation, RBC made it clear they wanted to be involved again in 2008. The Day of Caring will take place on Tuesday, September 16, 2008.
At the Annual General Meeting, President Rob Moore also presented the 2007 Volunteer of the Year Award. This year, both Dave and Jan Christensen were the winners.
The United Way also welcomed new Board Members. Pat Voegelin, Amanda White, Carlo Facca, and Steve Pilkey will join the Board.
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( 3.1 / 37 )I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winners of the Dow chemical Canada Legacy Gift; Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Rebound, and St. Lukes' Church.
These organizations provided a joint submission to Dow and were awarded yesterday with a $1. Million gift from Dow Chemical.
I think all of you know, The United Way was one of the final 6 organizations, and we are truly proud to have made it to that level. All six were worthy community projects, as Don Fysh from Dow Chemical pointed out and I can only imagine how difficult it must have been to select one. As an organization that makes funding decisions on an annual basis, I know how difficult that whole process can be. The advantage United Way has, is we can spread out our funding over 27 agencies and not have to be in a position to pick one.
I would also like to thank Dow Chemical for this community gift, and for providing all of us in the community the opportunity to present proposals.
In addition, Dow Chemical has supported the United Way as has the employees and retirees since our very first campaign in 1957, and continue to do so. I want to thank Dow again for that support. Dow has been a great friend to the United Way and their support has contributed greatly to our overall success.
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After reaching 101.5% of the 2007 campaign goal of $1,840,000, the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton Board of Directors have approved the 2008/09 Community Investments to the organizations 27 Funded Agencies who provide 50 programs and services in our community.
The programs receiving an increase include the Lambton Seniors’ Handyman/Handywomen program, Lambton Elderly Outreach Transportation program, Salvation Army Medical Necessities program, Big Brothers Matching program and Mentoring program, (in the photo above), Boys & Girls Club Drop In Centre and After School/Homework Club, and the Youth Resource Houses partnership. All other programs and services will see their funding remain at last year’s level with the exception of one, which experienced a decrease in service delivery over the last year.
“The decisions are always difficult to make” said Community Investment Chairperson, Pam Gallant, “however with this year’s campaign success and the measurable outcomes and impacts provided by our funded programs, this round was easier than some in the past.”
Consistent to the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton’s reputation of being responsive to our community needs, Gallant announced four other investments in our community.
The first one being a third year Venture Grant of $16,000 to the White Cane Centre. The agency assists those with low vision or blindness to get information on vision services and support in our community. The White Cane Centre works very closely with the CNIB, a United Way Funded Agency.
The second Venture Grant in the amount of $30,000 was awarded to the Grand Bend Youth Centre. This Centre fulfills the diverse needs of both youth and seniors in their rural community.
The third community investment is a partnership between Union Gas, United Way and the Salvation Army. Union Gas has provided $7,500.00 to the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton for a program known as the ‘Winter Warmth Program’. This fund provides emergency financial assistance for families struggling to pay their gas bill and also focuses on energy conservation to assist these households in lowering their energy costs.
The fourth Community Investment is a $100,000 allocation to the Sarnia-Lambton Drug Strategy. The local strategy will focus on 10 priority recommendations for Lambton County. The full Sarnia-Lambton drug strategy can be downloaded from the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton website at: www.theunitedway.on.ca
Overall, the 2007 United Way Campaign officially raised $1,870,000.
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Thank you to the Children's Aid Society for their help this year. Shown in the photo above, Linda Evoy presents a cheque to Paddy Roach for over $1,000 to "Aid" the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton. Linda said the staff at Children's Aid on Kendall Street in Point Edward held special events in the fall of 2007.
Overwhelming support from organizations from throughout Lambton have made the 2007 United Way campaign raise a record amount of money in this most recent campaign.
The United Way Board of Director's will meet on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 to make final decisions on the 2008/2009 agency allocations.
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( 3 / 329 )"Thank you to everybody" is our message today. By now, I know everybody has learned that the 2007 United Way of Sarnia-Lambton has reached its goal of $1,840,000. In fact, we are currently about $20,000 over goal.
The entire community once again deserves all of the credit. Canvassers, Employee Campaign Chairs, Campaign Cabinet Members, contributors, Board and Community Investment volunteers, local media, and everybody else who played a role this year had in impact on the great success.
In the coming weeks, you will see the remainder of the cheque presentations in The Observer as we put the finishing touches on the 2008 budgets, and Community Investment Decisions.
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With donations like the one presented above from Hiawatha Slots employees, and a few more that we have yet to add, we will reach goal! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!
We are still adding in Casino Point Edward Employees, and Cabot Canada employees and Cabot's corporate match. In all, we will exceed goal by about $10,000 or more. Excellent news, and news I know Campaign Chair Steve Pilkey could not wait to deliver.
Much like last year, about 40% of the campaign came in the past three weeks, but unlike last year, we were expecting it because all the reports we were getting from the many employee campaign co-ordinators this year was positive. Last year, you might remember, we were hearing not so positive news, and then suddenly, everything came together for us at the end.
It was great this year to receive more than $12,000 in donated stock; a new strategy we put in place and it presented a win/win for both the donor and the United Way.
That's all for now; I expect one or two more posts before Christmas.
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