Prairieland United Way Off to Good Start, More Events Planned for Campaign.

By Jeremy Coumbes on November 14, 2019 at 6:43pm

The Prairieland United Way is off to a good start for their 2019 campaign.

Recent fundraisers as well as the continuing employee campaigns have helped keep the campaign on track for this year, said Executive Director, Karen Walker.

We are about 40% to our goal, so we have a long ways to go, but we have been very busy getting out to our employee campaigns. We still have a few of those to do, but we are waiting anxiously to see how they turn out, and get them added to our campaign totals.

We had a board meeting yesterday and kind of compared where we are from year to year, and we are definitely in line with where we normally are at this point in the year, so we are happy about that. Of course it is not too late to get businesses signed up to help with the campaigns or to do any sort of fundraising.”

The Drive-Thru Breakfast on held on October 10th was reportedly a huge success with over $2,100 raised toward the campaign, and the City Wide Jeans day was held last week. Participants are reminded to be sure to get your donations turned in by dropping them off at the office, located at 200 W. Douglas Ave, or by calling the office at 245-4557 and a staff member will be happy to pick them up.

Walker said that there is still time for employers and the general public to get involved and that the Prairieland United Way has some fun fundraising coming up this weekend.

We actually are participating in the wings contest that K’s Creek is putting on this Saturday. We have Joe Darnell sitting in on that to try the wings and see how well he can do.

We have a couple of events coming up in February as well, so we are looking forward to getting information on those out soon. But we definitely rely a lot on our business partners, that and our individual donations. If you have not sent one in yet, we would welcome any that could be sent our way and hopefully we can get to that goal.”

Walker spoke about a few early details of events coming up in 2020.

We are actually going to have our first ever Prices United event. It is going to be held on February 8th and Reynolds is our major sponsor and we are really excited to have them partnering with us. It will be a Hamilton’s 100 and will include dinner and a game show for entertainment. So we have a lot of prizes and we are currently working on a lot of donations for that, so it is going to be a lot of fun.

And then this will be our third year of doing our trivia night, and that will be on February 22nd. Illinois College is hoisting that again at Crispin Hall, so we will be getting details out about that soon as well. So we welcome any trivia players or anyone wanting to sponsor a table to come out and join us.”

The Prairieland United Way serves Morgan, Cass Northern Green and Scott Counties.

To learn more about the United Way or to donate or get involved, you can visit their website at https://www.prairielandunitedway.org/

Or call or stop by the office in the lower level of the Jacksonville Municipal building, or call 217-245-4557.