The Prairieland United Way shared some big news this morning. Co-Chair Stephen Symons announced that after a couple of strong weekends, the annual campaign goal of $465,000 has been reached.
Stephen who is co-chair with his wife Cammie says getting to this point since the start of the campaign last year has been an amazing experience. “The things that Prarieland United Way does are incredible. Cammie and I were so excited and humbled to be asked to chair the campaign this year and to be a part of such a great organization. I don’t know if we really believed that we could reach the goal or not, but to see that it’s happening really makes us feel good, we’re really really happy to be a part of this.”
Symons says it takes a great number of contributors to reach the goal that ends up helping a great number in the community. “The employee campaigns are definitely a huge part of it and we’ve made some presentations to a number of different employers this year.
You know Covid has really thrown a wrench into it the last couple of years so we were fortunate that we were able to get back in front of a lot of employee groups this year. But then also the individual contributions have played a huge role.
The Symons Says challenge that we’ve run the last couple of weeks, we really didn’t know what to expect but that’s brought in about $2,000 so everything from the employee campaigns to the personal donations, they all count.”
Symons also said that Price is United event was a big contributor to not only raising money but awareness of the campaign. He says the next step in the process is dividing up the funds, so allocation meetings are planned for later in March and the Prairieland United Way needs volunteers.
“So anyone who is interested in serving on an allocation panel should get in touch with Karen Walker sometime this week. Those allocation meetings are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, March 21st and 22nd, and then Wednesday and Thursday the 29th and 30th. They are sort of long evenings, they start a five o’clock and run up to about 9 o’clock up at the municipal building, but they are a great way for people to get involved.”
For more information on the Prairieland United Way, or to volunteer, contact executive director Karen Walker at 217-245-4557.