- From left, Cecily Coppola, Lisa McAllister, Bruce McAllister, Emily Robert, Ashley Church, Bill Steep, Bill Zilio, Jim Blake, Art Stirling and William Grin showcase the final total for the 2013 United Way of Chatham-Kent campaign, $1.850459 million.
Despite a $350,000 shortfall, today’s United Way of Chatham-Kent touchdown was anything but a letdown.
Nearly 100 people attended the event at Boston Pizza in which campaign chairs, cabinet members and volunteers were praised for raising $1.85 million in a challenging economic climate.
David Drouillard, director of resource development for the United Way, said co chairs Cecily Coppola and William Grin should “walk proudly” for what they’ve accomplished.
Grin said he considered the campaign a “tremendous opportunity” and urged the community to keep working toward making Chatham-Kent a better place, while Coppola said the experience was “worth every second because every single dollar means so much.”
Coppola earlier in the day praised the people and corporations of Chatham-Kent who were able to support the campaign.
“There are a tremendous number of individual donor gifts, corporate sponsorships, special event incomes and employee pledges that are represented in this total. It is a total we are proud of, a total that so many volunteers, agency representatives and United Way staff have worked hard to make happen,” she said in the release.
United Way Executive Director Karen Kirkwood-Whyte said the organization’s allocation committee will face a difficult task this year in making recommendations to the board for fund dispersal. “Anytime you don’t make goal, the decisions just become that more difficult,” she said. “There are so many legitimate needs in our community.”
This year’s total was approximately $150,000 less than what was raised last year.
United Way funds 25 agencies, programs and services across Chatham-Kent.
