Community members gathered on Thursday evening as the United Way of Chatham-Kent revealed the final annual fundraising total of $1,852,699. This comes up $162,301 shy of their $2,015,000 goal.
Kelly Bayda and Aimee June, 2015 campaign co-chairs, said they are thankful to all those who have supported the campaign.
“There are so many individuals to thank for agreeing to support us in this campaign, it would be impossible to list everyone by name,” June said.
“We would like to thank the members of our campaign cabinet who devoted their time to calling on past donors and generating new leads. A special thank you to Steve Baker and Wes Thompson for each hosting a ‘Seeing is Believing’ luncheon to share the stories of those whose lives have been improved by United Way. ‘Seeing’ is absolutely critical for those individuals who are considering a gift to United Way and these luncheons resulted in new employee campaigns and gifts from new donors.”
Bayda added: “We would also like to thank corporate and community leaders who established in-house employee campaign committees, invited United Way speakers in to tell their stories and – in several cases – matched employee dollars. To all the individual donors across Chatham-Kent – thank you. Please know that your contribution, large or small, is making a difference in someone’s life. As this whirlwind of a campaign comes to a close it is our hope that this year’s successes can be built upon as United Way works towards their five-year target of $2.5 million.”
Due to the shortfall this year, some organizations supported by the United Way may be impacted.
The organizations may have longer wait times, reduced services, shorter hours or possibly reduced staffing.
