Day of Caring

Thursday May 8 was the 16th annual United Way Day of Caring, and I wanted to tell you a little about some of the great things that happened that day in our community. More than 10,000 volunteers worked on about 500 project sites in and around Rochester worked, doing things like basic indoor spring cleaning, raking, weeding and planting, painting rooms, building decks and picnic tables, washing windows and more. All the volunteers were also invited to a free luncheon sponsored by the Clarion Riverside Hotel, as a way to say thank you for volunteering.
Also, this year we teamed up with the City of Rochester and M&T Bank to focus on literacy projects. The schools that benefited from these projects were Roberto Clemente Elementary School #8, James Duffy School #12, Henry W. Longfellow School #36, Mary McLeon Bethune School #45 and World of Inquiry School #58. Volunteers read books to students and helped make Mother’s Day gifts.

We’re also excited that, thanks to M&T Bank, $10,000 was given to United Way to help support literacy summer programs in five City schools, and to launch a new program geared to ensure classrooms have supplies of books for students.

Click here to check out some of the pictures we captured throughout the day. In all, more than $1 million worth of work was completed in one day. If you have some pics to share of your team in action, send them to us - we’d love to add them to our gallery! And thanks again to everyone who took the time off of work and school to be part of the 2008 United Way Day of Caring.

Great Fundraisers

I wanted to tell you about some of the great United Way fundraisers happening at area companies that people have written to us about. First, Jared Sabado over at the Democrat and Chronicle sent us some impressive pictures from their bake off which raised $330 toward their goal! At Hillside Children’s Center, Erin Donnelly and Todd Pipitone invited me out to their annual pancake breakfast, where I was able to witness the staff pancake eating contest -- which was quite a spectacle! They had about 50 people turn out and raised $150 toward their goal.

Our supporters throw great fundraisers for United Way, but I want you to know about some of the cool events we employees at United Way had as part of our own internal campaign. One of the most successful was a friendly competition we called Jar Wars. Our building was divided into three teams and we all put money into our jars. But the catch was dollars and quarters were negative money – they subtracted from the totals! There was some pretty intense competition at the end, each team was determined to win! In the end, we raised more than $700. Check out some of the pictures from all the great fundraisers – and thanks to everyone for supporting our community through United Way!

The importance of a mentor

Rochester and its surrounding counties have been fortunate enough to be part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization for the past 30 years. Their program offers a basic concept - to help kids build skills to succeed in school, graduate and become self- sufficient.

United Way funds the Mentoring program which provides guidance, support and exposure to positive life choices to at-risk kids thru a one-on-one relationship. Last year, our funding helped 625 kids.

In 2000, BBBS started a school based program where they would match a high school student to a elementary student. An interesting element to this new program is when they are choosing the high schooler, they choose someone who is an average student- not an “over achiever.” It has shown that 90% of the kids involved are more likely to make better decisions about relationships and drugs.

Big Brothers Big Sisters was actually featured in an issue of our news magazine, Real Time. Read about Mohamed Gazali and his experience with BBBS here.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is always in need of mentors. There are 115 kids on the waiting list and of them, 88 of are boys. If you or someone you know is interested, check out their web site for more information.

Holy Childhood Fundraiser

Our Spring campaign is in full swing and we are hearing some great stories about the different fundraisers going on to raise money for United Way.

Students over at the School of the Holy Childhood made a lunch for the staff and charged $4 with all proceeds going toward their campaign. The students did everything from making signs, creating the menu, and making and serving the food! The lunch raised $240 toward their goal!

Two thumbs up to the students at School of the Holy Childhood.

If you haven’t already, check out my previous blog to learn more about SHC.

If you have a great fundraising idea that you would like to see on our blog, send me an
e-mail at Elizabeth.lewis@uwrochester.org

Campaign Kickoff

This week we officially kicked off our 2008 campaign with a bus tour and media event. It was a great success! 2008 United Way Campaign Chair - Paychex President and CEO Jon Judge - invited members of our Board and Campaign Cabinet to join him for a brief bus tour that drove by several funded agencies - including Wilson Commencement Park, Baden Street and Urban League. There were several staff members who talked about Community Fund supported programs at those agencies that either help children succeed in school, help first-time homebuyers, or help people with disabilities.

The bus tour ended at The Community Place where everyone took a tour of the building and learned, first hand, about their Community Fund programs. At Community Place, we support programs that help children and programs that help seniors (there were even some seniors from the senior day program there to watch the press conference). On the way back to United Way, those on the tour learned about how United Way supports Medical Motors, who donated the bus service for the event.

We’re happy to report that we had great media turnout for the goal announcement, check out some of the coverage we received.

South Wedge at work~

It was Friday evening after work, - it was a time to, as one my colleagues so aptly put it, “put on your snugglies and STAY HOME”. Instead, my family & I were headed back in town to see a show at the German House, in the heart of the South Wedge neighborhood. I was wondering “were we crazy?” There were lots of signs that it was a bad plan: it was end of a long work week, it was snowing sideways, it was 20 degrees & we were headed for a City neighborhood that has had more than its fair share of vacant commercial space & crime over the last decade. Would there be other folks who would be willing to brave the elements to enjoy the show? Would we have fun?

My worries were for nothing. We arrived an hour before the show (I hate being late) & the neighborhood was absolutely hopping – sweat-shirt clad teens engaged in a friendly snowball fight, folks enjoying neighborhood restaurants, drivers vying for precious parking spots. We had an amazing evening & the show was so good that I laughed until I cried.

Why should UW donors care? Because this is clearly a neighborhood that is working & my experience tells me that it hasn’t happened by accident – it has taken countless hours of focused, creative thinking on the part of neighborhood folks to foster a place where residents, businesses and visitors work and thrive. United Way has been working with the South Wedge Planning Committee for the last 4 years or so, funding programs that support neighborhood revitalization – small business development, home repair, etc. Clearly it’s paying off & I couldn’t be happier.

United Way and the LPGA Tournament

You may have read in the paper, or heard on the news about our new partnership with Wegmans.

United Way's Board of Directors voted on whether to take ownership of the Wegmans LPGA Tournament, and approved it. Basically, what this translates to is that starting with the 2009 tournament, United Way's Children's Success Fund will begin receiving proceeds from the event.

We created the Children's Success Fund a couple of years ago. It's a special fund, separate from the general campaign fund, which focuses on programs that will help children in our community who are considered most at-risk of failure.

We see this partnership as another tremendous way we can work with Wegmans to benefit the Rochester community. Wegmans, historically, has been such an incredible supporter of our region, and their remarkable generosity has continued far beyond what we ever imagined.

At the end of the day - this transition will allow us to broaden our reach and help as many people as we can.

One quick note too... once the change takes place, the Rotary Sunshine Camp and Camp Haccamo will be eligible to apply for funding through the Children's Success Fund.