It’s all about Raising the Red: Paintings boost United Way
Oak Bay artist Marion Evamy just turned 55 and her birthday wish is that the 20 paintings she has donated to the United Way fundraising campaign this month will net the organization $5,500.
Several of her renditions of roses in vases sold at a reception at the Red Art Gallery she co-owns. Another $2,000 was raised through bids for lunch for 10 at the Empress Hotel and a private boat charter trip led by former Oak Bay mayor Chris Causton.
The bidding ended at $1,750, but winner Dick Auchinleck said he didn’t like the feeling he was “getting a bargain” at a charitable fundraiser and upped his bid.
The event was part of Victoria United Way’s outreach Raise the Red February campaign aimed at con- necting new partners with the organization, which funds 111 local programs and non-profits and helped more than 80,000 people last year.
The United Way raised $5.8 million in 2014 but did not set a monetary goal for the 2015-16 campaign that began last fall, said CEO Patricia Jelinski.
Instead, the goal is to boost contributor numbers to 13,000 from 11,000 and reach people not part of workplace fundraising and other traditional approaches.
“We’re doing well,” Jelinski said, but maybe just “a little bit behind” the funds raised a year ago at the same time.
“I think we’re tracking well, but, of course, the economy has been challenging,” she said.
“It’s just really important that we continue to engage people in the cause.”
February’s Raise the Red campaign highlights the year-round work and response of the United Way, Jelinski said.
She was thrilled with the contributions from the event hosted at Evamy’s Red Art Gallery, and Evamy told the redbedecked crowd she was honoured to take part.
Arts and compassion go together, the artist said, and “compassion is really what the United Way is about.”
Art helps people suspend judgment of the perspectives of others, she said, engage people’s emotions and lead to empathy even among those with radically different world views.
“Art can mitigate the numbing effect created by the glut of information we are faced with today, and motivate people to turn thinking into doing.”