By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

“Uniting Our Community” is the theme for the United Way of Ellis County  2015 campaign  which formally kicked off last Friday and is already well on the way to reaching its $490,000 goal.

The event was part of the monthly member luncheon of the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce, to which representatives of the 15 UWEC member agencies were invited.

The new UWEC Executive Director, Sherry Dryden, told the crowd last year’s campaign goal of $490,000 unfortunately fell short with only $450,000 reached.

“The 15 United Way agencies provided more than 17,000 services last year.  That’s a huge, huge number.  I was flabbergasted and of course, I got goose bumps thinking about that,” Dryden said.  “But we still had some people we had to turn away.  There were 2,300 individuals we could not provide services for due to funding shortages.”

She had much better news to share.

“As of 10 a.m. Friday, Aug.28, we are at 23 percent towards our goal, thanks to our local Pacesetter companies, and not all of the Pacesetters have turned in their donations. Last year at this time, I understand, we were at 17 percent of the goal,” Dryden announced to a round of applause.

UWEC is slowing starting to migrate from a partnership model to a community model, Dryden explained.  “We’re all working together.  It’s not United Way and member agencies; we’re all working together. We’re also agencies that are working together for each other.”

She gave the example of  the ACCESS van’s recent campaign for school supplies donations in lieu of paying for a ride.   The supplies were donated to Backpacks for Kids at First Call for Help .  First Call for Help is a UWEC member agency; the ACCESS van is operated by Developmental Services of Northwest Kansas, also a member agency.

Nearly all of the money raised by UWEC stays in Ellis County–99 percent–of which 16 percent is used for administrative costs.   The remaining one percent goes to United Way Worldwide.

“Now more than ever, individuals need assistance. We as a united community need to do all we can to give. Even if it is just a small amount, it all adds up,” Dryden said.

Eagle Communications is a UWEC Pacesetter Company.  In 1953, the company founder, Bob Schmidt, organized what was then the United Way of Hays.

Disclosure: Becky Kiser, an Eagle Communications employee/owner, is the 2015 UWEC Campaign Chair.