The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
United Way starts campaign with community party
Giving season has started in Lorain County. United Way of Greater Lorain County kicked off its 2017-18 campaign with a community party Aug. 18 at Mike Bass Ford, 5050 Detroit Road in Sheffield Village.
The effort is a major fundraiser for United Way, which joins with partner agencies to leverage additional grant money to help pay for community improvement programs.
With music playing and chatter indoors and out, the atmosphere was lighthearted and enthusiastic for a good cause.
“Big problems require bold goals and decisive action and that’s what we’re after,” said United
Way of Greater Lorain County Executive Director Bill Harper, as he took a turn at the grill making hamburgers for lunch.
“We go looking for our community’s most critical problems and we rally the community around those problems to find long-term solutions,” Harper said. “This requires a fundamental systems change and we need the community’s financial support to continue the work.”
United Way supports 11 Community Collaboratives, with member organizations hosting interactive stations for guests.
The stations were meant to be a fun way to illustrate small initiatives that can be implemented as part of a larger collaborative to affect the community, according to United Way.
At one station, brothers Colin Barrett, 14, and Brendan Barrett, 12, of Avon, played a quick round of the guessing game Hedbanz.
They attended with their mother, Renee Barrett, who is program manager for the Fitness Center at UH Avon Health Center, which will host fitness events next month as part of the United We Sweat community fitness initiative.
It was the boys’ first time attending the campaign kickoff, Renee Barrett said.
The station was sponsored by Rising Titans, the kindergarten readiness initiative created United Way and Lorain City Schools for toddlers and parents.
“It’s important for parents to play games with their kids that are educational,” said Monica Snipes, Rising Titans project director. “This is one of the few games that get them to answer questions, learn to listen, to build on a lot of skills.”
Snipes attended the event with her daughter, Lorain High School junior Azaria Blair.
The youths were far from the only students attending. The Midview High School Marching Band, 120 players strong, performed for the crowd and hammed it up with mascots of area sports teams, including Slider from the Cleveland Indians.
“The goal for this event is to engage our supporters and the entire community in our work so they can make a visible connection to where their donations are going,” Harper said. “This is a fun and informative way for us to highlight the importance of giving during the annual campaign so the work can be sustained and expanded as needed.”
The event also celebrated the dual 100-year and 50year anniversaries of the agency’s founding as the War Chest in 1917 and becoming United Way in 1967.
In recent years, United Way’s plan to work with agencies for community programs has received local and national attention. The Greater Lorain County United Way ranked in the top 10 nationally for United Ways of similar size and was named the Ohio United Way of the Year for 2016.