United Way kicks off campaign with $1M goal

The following article first appeared in The Parkersburg News & Sentinel on September 9, 2021

The United Way Alliance of the Mid-Ohio Valley has eclipsed $1 million in funds raised in each of its last four annual campaigns.

They’re looking to make it five in a row.

“That’s becoming a household budget for us,” United Way Executive Director Stacy DeCicco said after Wednesday’s kickoff breakfast at the Grand Pointe Conference Center. “We need to hit a million dollars. It’s not really a lofty goal for us anymore.”

While five consecutive years of $1 million fundraising was a goal before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said, that has increased the need for assistance from the United Way, which partners with and funds nonprofits serving the community in a number of ways.

“Our nonprofits just need more stability, more propping up right now,” DeCicco said. “There are people sitting in a gap that weren’t in a gap three years ago.”

One approach the United Way is taking is providing executive coaching to local nonprofits to help them build their capacity, she said.

The last two campaigns raised $1.25 million and $1.12 million, and that was with a lot of interactions being done virtually due to pandemic precautions. DeCicco said she’s looking forward to taking the campaign to more workplaces in person this time.

“We’re actually getting to be back in space with people,” she said.

The kickoff breakfast was once again built around a football theme, with cards at each table proclaiming the organization’s “game stats,” including:

* 1,961 children received assistance through the 2021 Christmas Clearinghouse.

* 218 pairs of shoes collected for the Equal Footing Shoe Fund in the last year.

* 3,802 calls, texts and chats answered through 211 in the last year.

* 250 Classroom Kits provided to teachers in the last year.

* 178 individuals volunteered through the Downtown Ambassador Program this year.

* The Downtown Ambassadors removed 182 bags of trash and debris from the streets of Parkersburg.

* More than $48,652 awarded in the last year to help combat food insecurity across the Mid-Ohio Valley.

“This is always a day where we have an opportunity to show the community what we did in the past, but really it’s looking forward to the future,” said Vasanth Ananth, vice president of the United Way board.

Also during the breakfast, the United Way gave awards to James Liebau and Jason Wyers as Volunteers of the Year and the Blennerhassett Hotel, represented by co-owner Lee Rector, as Community Partner of the Year.