LIVE UNITED Y’All!

By Kate McNatt

Metro United Way wants to thank all the kind folks at General Electric, who just donated 4,600 portable space heaters to people in need during these cold winter months. Metro United Way will be the leader in distributing the space heaters, and the Salvation Army, a Metro United Way agency, is going to serve as the distribution site.

There are two opportunities to get involved (see below).  Volunteers will be handling boxes of heaters and should be able to lift up to 36 lbs.  Boxes may be dusty or dirty so please dress accordingly.  If you can help, please call Patty Belden at 502-292-6152 or email patty.belden@metrounitedway.org.  As always, thanks for your support!

Thursday January 14th – Distribution to Agencies

Location: Salvation Army

6709 Preston Highway

Louisville, KY 40219

Shift A: 1:00pm – 3:00pm         Volunteers Needed = 6

Shift B: 3:00pm – 5:00pm         Volunteers Needed = 6

Shift C: 5:00pm – 7:00pm         Volunteers Needed = 6

Friday January 15^th – Distribution to Agencies

Location: Salvation Army

6709 Preston Highway

Louisville, KY 40219

Shift A:  8:00am – 10:00am      Volunteers Needed = 6

Shift B: 10:00am – 12:00pm     Volunteers Needed = 6

Shift C: 12:00pm – 2:00pm       Volunteers Needed = 6

Events, General, Volunteering Community, Live United, making a difference, opportunity, Volunteer

By David Caldwell

I’ve never been a big fan of New Year’s resolutions. I always figured that if you really want to make a change in your life you should just do it – don’t wait for a “special” day to make it happen. That changed for me last year.

Since college I’ve been a non-smoker…sort of. I’ve always been that guy who might have a pack of cigarettes in his truck while he tells you he doesn’t smoke. I know how horrible the habit is for your health – I saw the black lung in science class too. I know how addictive the practice is – my dad smoked for 30 plus years. None of that ever stopped me from “kinda” smoking. I justified it to myself because I wasn’t a “real” smoker. I just smoked when I drank, or was really stressed, or it was Tuesday – you know, just a little. I was the familiar stranger in the smokers’ circle.

As the ball drops this year, I’ll be kissing my sweetheart with smoke-free breath, and celebrating 365 days without a cigarette. My goal is a lot more years of the same, but for now I’ll celebrate the first one.

So what are you resolving to do this year? If you haven’t quite decided, let me make a suggestion. Make a resolution to make a difference in the life of a child.

You could donate some books to the child care center down the street. You could volunteer to teach an art activity at your child’s school. You could find a way to be a role model for the kids across town and across the street that need a few more caring adults in their lives. You could write a check to your favorite child focused agency. You could call your legislator and tell them to make children more of a priority when they make decisions.

Think about all you’ll have to celebrate after a year of working to improve the life of a child. If you want to give, advocate, or volunteer, you can visit our website. If you want a few more ideas or some help in making your resolution a reality, let me know. Have a wonderful holiday, and ring in the New Year in a meaningful way!

Photo Credit: maxxtraffic

Advocacy, Giving, Volunteering Children, Live United, making a difference, opportunity, Volunteer

By Cindy Lehnert

Can you make a difference? Of course you can! Every day you make a difference in someone’s life. And they make a difference in yours. Surprised? Don’t be. We are all connected in more ways than we know.

Most of us think our lives make sense and there is nothing more to add. We have a career plan, choose a significant other and plan to ride off into the sunset happily ever after. That’s what we dream about while we are growing up isn’t it?

We have the opportunity to do more. All of us do. We have the opportunity to volunteer in our community and make a difference for our neighbors and ourselves. The experience of volunteering can help us to realize the connection we all have to each other. It helps us to understand that change happens on a collective level, a little bit at a time, when people work together. It teaches us that everyone has a skill that they can share and that by working together we can make a difference.

Volunteering not only effects change and improves lives within the community; it changes us and improves our lives. We make connections, meet new people and enrich our relationships. We improve the community we live in and surround ourselves with new ways of viewing humanity. We believe that change is possible. We have faith in ourselves and others. We begin to know that things will continue to improve as long as we press forward a little bit each day.

It doesn’t take a lot. Find a few minutes in your day to do something for the community. Start slow and build. We can all do something.

For information on volunteer opportunities in the Metro Louisville area check out the link below.

http://www.metrounitedway.org/volunteer

Volunteering Community, Volunteer

Change is an incredible thing.  Without change (or progress), we wouldn’t have the microwave, cell phone, or digital TV—and don’t we all love our cell phones.  Additionally, without change, men and women alike would not have the right to vote; without change we wouldn’t celebrate July 4^th every year as there would have been no Independence Day. 

What about the smaller changes that happen all around us everyday?   Have you ever watched and thought about how the smaller change in your life affects the larger change in our community, and nation.  Look around.  For instance, when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879 it didn’t happen overnight; there were a number of other individual influences leading up to his work (actually starting as early as 1806..imagine that!).  Think about when you reach out a hand—

-To watch a neighbor’s child while they go to work

-To help your elderly neighbor take out their trash

-To send out “thinking of you cards” to homebound individuals

-To clean up the community park

-To give your input and ideas on a local board

-To read to or mentor young children

With anyone of these you are acting as an agent of change.   There are the immediate results you can see and the not so immediate results.  I think about the relationship I have with my sister, Rachel, who is 11 years younger than I am.  Reading to her as a young child, and now mentoring her through her high school years as she prepares for decisions such as which colleges to pursue, and which courses to take for her senior year, etc.  I am able to watch the change and impact I am able to have in her life.  Some of those are immediate, however often it’s a process over time.  And, I am one of many individuals to impact her over the past 17 years of her life, and there will be many others. 

We have agents of change here at Metro United Way, throughout the building where we work, throughout the community where we live.  From those who come and volunteer their time on the Campaign Cabinet to raise resources, to those who serve on the Program Review team to make funding decisions, to our partners who work beside us.  Each of these individual’s have a lasting impact on what our community will look like each year, and into the future.  For instance, the Campaign Cabinet in Southern Indiana (and in each of our counties) works each year to raise resources.  These volunteers are the “feet on the street”, and are advocates for the work of United Way.  (Thank you to all our volunteer teams.)  Without the resources this team volunteers to raise our community would look very different.  In fact, last year through Metro United Way this Campaign Cabinet, along with companies, individuals, foundations, brothers, sisters, moms, dads, the whole of Southern Indiana raised and contributed a total of $1.86 million dollars.  These resources equate to change.

Look into the future, can you see what it will look like with and without this change.  It could be the difference between sunshine, and rain for someone you know.  Be an agent for change.  You can learn more at www.metrounitedway.org, or choose to change the face of your community by visiting www.give5forall.org and use your resources to change one life at a time. 

Giving, Volunteering give, Volunteer

by Kelly Hutchinson, Donor Relationship Manager

Working at Metro United Way is fun. That’s right, I really did say FUN. Yes, there are many days that are very challenging. It is a workplace with a very diverse and talented pool of driven people who have different personalities and skills while sharing in a collective desire to advance the common good and deliver significant impact and results for our community. As an organization, we seem to keep our individual eyes focused on mutually shared goals and objectives that will move us along in our work and accomplish the most good for our community.

While we are advancing the common good we do find the opportunity to laugh with one another. We celebrate the happy occasions in the lives of our co-workers like the recent and upcoming weddings of several. We are also an extended family that mobilizes and rallies around to help each other when someone experiences the loss of a loved one or a challenge is facing them in their personal life. Did you know we have a resident Birthday Fairy who makes sure that when you come to work on your birthday you are showered with email wishes from peers?

If you have been following along with our blog, then you know that in Resource Development we ring a bell whenever someone from our team wants to share good news. This simple act causes us to pause in our day, share in the good news and inspire each other when we hear how someone has grown the participation in a company campaign, a sponsor has partnered with us, a donor has informed us on their gift, or a company decides to run a campaign for United Way for the first time. We celebrate new members in our Giving Clubs like the Allen Society, Tocqueville, Young Leaders, Red Feather and the Women’s Initiative.

Since this post is about the lighter side at Metro United Way I will let you in on a couple. I have seen a royal blue, foam filled Superhero Suit that is Captain 2-1-1. I have not yet seen a co-worker wearing the suit but I am guessing it is only a matter of time. Or perhaps this is like Clark Kent and one will never know for sure who Captain 2-1-1 is. We have glamorous recognition awards for our Loaned Executives who are so important in our work. We couldn’t do what we do with out our volunteers and during the campaign season Loaned Executives come on board to work in the community. We want to make sure they know they are appreciated and that we celebrate their accomplishments also. So if you see a girl with one Golden Shoe, someone with a Pen the size of a baseball bat, or glitter-laden angel wings on the back of a desk chair, then you may have just passed a Metro United Way award winner who is on the campaign trail.

I hope as you are reading that you may think of some of the silly things that go on in your workplace or of simple ways that you can add a little humor to someone’s day because, life is really just too short to not learn how to roll with the punches, have a good time while doing some hard work and to flash your pearly whites and share a smile with those you work with.

If you need a little inspiration to help you loosen up your funny bone then you are encouraged to join us for a fun night out? Join us in your LIVE UNITED t shirt –or whatever shirt you like—we will host a night out at the Comedy Caravan in Louisville on July 30^th at 8 pm. It is a fundraising benefit for our employee campaign and each $8 ticket sold will benefit Metro United Way. RSVP by July 26^th via email to kelly.hutchinson@metrounitedway.org if you would like to get tickets. It would be great to see our event filled with YOU, our friends of Metro United Way who make a difference in our community by giving and volunteering.  There are simply too many people in our community right now that are struggling and that is no laughing matter.  But…the Metro United Way Comedy Caravan Fundraiser with Russ Nagel will be something to laugh about! Can you join us?

Events, General, Giving, Volunteering awards, Common good, Community, donor groups, Volunteer, workplace morale

by Priscilla Henken

I recently got into the art of origami, specifically paper cranes, and have been practicing by making cranes of different sizes for my co-workers in my spare time. They love them and it gives me a chance to show off my new skill. Well, last week another co-worker from the other side of the building was in the Marketing Department and saw one of my particularly good specimens sitting on the desk of my boss. He was impressed and when he found out that I had made it he came to my office to tell me this story which has inspired hope for so many people across the world.

At the end of World War II when the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many people who survived ended up with severe radiation sickness and cancer. One such citizen was a young girl by the name of Sadako Sasaki. She was 2 when the bomb hit a little more than a mile from her home in Hiroshima. For the next 10 years she would struggle with health issues until finally in 1955, at age 12, she was diagnosed with leukemia and less than a year to live.

While she was in the hospital a friend brought her a square of golden paper, folded a crane out of it and told her the legend that if she could fold 1,000 paper cranes then she would get a wish. Sadako was inspired and began folding. Even though she had plenty of time in the hospital for folding, she lacked paper. She would use anything she could find and would even go into other patients rooms to ask for the paper from their get well presents. Her friends from school would bring her paper when they would come to visit but it still wasn’t enough. Sadako never finished her cranes. She died after spending 8 months in the hospital and making 644 cranes. After she died her friends and family got together, finished her cranes and buried all 1,000 with her.

Though Sadako did not finish her cranes, she had set something in motion. In the years since Sadako’s death there have been several books written about her legacy as well as a play and a few songs. There is a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane erected in Hiroshima as a memorial to her and the other children that lost their lives. All of this has morphed into a mass movement of the people of the world. Each year, millions gather across the world to fold paper cranes for peace and justice across the globe.

What came from Sadako’s suffering shows how one person can make a difference and that if people care it can lead to a huge movement for a common cause. This is a wonderful example of what it means to LIVE UNITED in your community. Imagine if we could be so moved in our community without having to let anyone hurt for any amount of time. We could change our community dramatically and it could even lead to a change in the world. All you have to do is go online and find out how you can volunteer your time to make a difference.

Flickr photo: MarkyBon

Advocacy, General, Volunteering Hiroshima, Live United, Paper Cranes, Sadako Sasaki, Volunteer

The Obama Administration is betting that 81 days can strengthen a movement, a movement of change through volunteering.

Metro United Way has been part of that movement for a while now, and is excited to have such strong support for volunteering from the President and the First Lady this week.

Yesterday, June 22, was the launch of United We Serve, a national effort initiated by President Obama to engage more Americans in serving their communities. It is an extended call to service challenging all American to help lay a new foundation for growth by engaging in sustained, meaningful community service. The initiative runs for 81 days through a new National Day of Service and Remembrance on September 11.

The Administration is working with hundreds of national and local organizations like Metro United Way to encourage participation in the effort and launched the Serve.gov website to help make it easy for all to get involved. Metro United Way is listed on the Serve.gov website as the local volunteer connection place in Louisville, surrounding counties and Southern Indiana area.

The United We Serve initiative shares two of Metro United Way’s key focus areas of Education, Income, and Health, and is a great way to highlight and promote strong efforts already underway in the Louisville area and communities across the nation.

Local volunteer opportunities can be found on our website at www.metrounitedway.org

Michelle Obama’s address to the opening session at the National Center for Volunteer and Service Conference in San Francisco:

http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/live/opening-session.cfm

K. Thompson

General Change the World, Common good, Community, Live United, Volunteer

by Kelly Hutchinson, Donor Relations

I would like to take a moment today and congratulate all the fine people who have made the switch from analog to digital. Once again, we as Americans have survived another important milestone. It seems if we ban together we can accomplish anything!

I laughed out loud recently at this FB post made by a friend. I also quickly thought about a deeper message that entered my mind. I thought to myself, so the big day finally arrived, passed and went unnoticed. Sort of like the Y2k bug that never really reared a pesty head but the hype leading up caused such a stir.

Then, I thought a little bit more….One of the real challenges we have in our work at Metro United Way is in getting the message of our work out into our community. If you are a volunteer, donor or both then I would want to say THANK YOU as that is always a most important message. I know have along the way learned the value of lending your time, talents and treasure the United Way.

However, if you are in the pool of people who aren’t quite sure about the value of United Way, what we do, or the opportunities created, well then you need to know more.

Our goal is to advance the common good and share opportunities to give, advocate and volunteer for vital health and human services that will impact education, income and health in our community. At Metro United Way, we change the lives of those who walk by us everyday and we can change what we see in our world.

Stay with me on this… Think about it…What a difference it would make if the same dedicated messaging, and urgency -I recall for at least a year no less watching the scrolls, commercials and reminders to be ready for the impending switch from analog to digital TV- could be applied to helping our community.

Hmmm…I wonder what would happen for our neighbors, friends, and community if the same effort and level of importance this constant messaging created in citizens could be used to advance the common good and inspire people to get involved, and prepare to create some community change?

We would see progress toward bold goals and we would help make things better for all of us. Because we all win when families are financially stable, when children succeed in school and when we enjoy good health.

You too can share the good news, spread an important message and create a ground swell of awareness and support. You can also join with me in an easy, affordable way to make a big difference today by joining the Give 5 Now virtual campaign for Metro United Way. Check it out, share the message and Thanks!

Advocacy, Education, General, Giving, Health, Income advocate, Common good, community change, give, Give 5 Now, United Way, Volunteer

A recent survey of Metro United Way agencies indicated that many people in our community are struggling for a basic necessity- food. Our agencies that provide food assistance have seen a 40% increase in “first-timers” or people who have never sought food assistance before.

The statistics are astounding, but what really makes my heart ache is seeing how this affects so many people in our community- three children splitting one “happy” meal at the local fast food restaurant, seeing an elderly man dig through a garbage can on my commute home from work, hearing that a family friend lost his job, then his house, and ultimately his ability to feed his family of five. Its easier to read faceless statistics than to remember that this isn’t about numbers-its about people, right here in our community who don’t have enough to eat, and I’m sure you will agree that even one child in our community going to bed hungry is one too many…

You may be wondering, what can I do to make a difference?

Volunteer

In an effort to provide more food to more people, Metro United Way has partnered with Dare to Care to supply volunteers for additional Dare to Care Mobile Food Pantries around town. We are looking for groups of 10-12 to help distribute food at local Dare to Care mobile food pantry sites- please visit our website to sign up your company, church group or club.

Speaking of, the first pantry as a result of this partnership is happening today!! A big thank you to Youth Build and D.D Williamson & Co. for volunteering!

Advocate

Do you know someone who is struggling to feed his/her family? Whether it is food assistance or foreclosure advice, tell them to dial 2-1-1 for Metro United Way’s free, confidential health and human service assistance line. Help is available 24/7 in over 100 languages.

Give

To help families in our community who are in crisis, please consider a donation to Metro United Way. Did you know that a donation of $5.00 per week will provide one hundred warm meals to individuals at the Salvation Army Louisville Center for Hope?

For more information on how you can Live United please visit metrounitedway.org.

Photo by petit plat by sk_

Advocacy, Events, Giving, Income, Volunteering 2-1-1, advocate, Common good, Community, Giving, Live United, Louisville, Metro United Way, Volunteer

April is celebrated as Volunteer Month in Kentucky, and it’s a time to recognize all those people in our community who give of their time and talents so generously throughout the year.  Whether you volunteer with a nonprofit human service organization, at your child’s school, at your house of worship, with a neighborhood group, with a sports team, at a hospital or service club; if you drive a neighbor to the store, care for a friend’s children while she runs some errands, or feed the neighbors’ cat while they’re on vacation, we salute you!

It’s very difficult to sum up the difference that volunteers make through their acts of kindness, so I’ll let the late humorist Erma Bombeck say it for me in the essay she wrote entitled, “So Long, Volunteers.”

“I had a dream the other night that every volunteer in this land had set sail for another country.  I stood smiling on the pier, shouting, ‘Goodbye phone committees.  Goodbye disease of the month.  No more getting out the vote.  No more playground duty, bake sales, rummage sales, thrift shops, and three-hour meetings.’

‘As the boat got smaller, I reflected, “Serves them right, that bunch of yes people.  All they had to do was to put their tongues firmly against the roofs of their mouths and make an ‘O’ sound – no.  It would certainly have spared them a lot of grief.  Oh, well, who needs them?’

‘The hospital was quiet as I passed it.  The reception desk was vacant.  Rooms were devoid of books, flowers, and voices.  The children’s wing held no clowns, no laughter.  The home for the aged was like a tomb.  The blind listened for a voice that never came.  The infirmed were imprisoned in wheelchairs that never moved.  Food grew cold on trays that would never reach the hungry.

‘The social agencies had closed their doors – unable to implement their programs of scouting, recreation, drug control; unable to help the retarded, handicapped, lonely and abandoned.  Health agencies had signs in their windows: ‘Cures for cancer, birth defects, multiple sclerosis, heart diseases, etc., have been cancelled because of lack of interest.’

‘The schools were strangely quiet with no field trips and no volunteer classroom aides.  Symphony halls and the museums that had been built and stocked by volunteers were dark and would remain that way.  The flowers in churches and synagogues withered and died.  Children in day nurseries lifted their arms, but there was no one to hold them in love.

‘Alcoholics cried out in despair, but no one answered.  The poor had no recourse for health care or legal aid.  I fought in my sleep to regain a glimpse of the ship of volunteers just one more time.  It was to be my last glimpse of a decent civilization.”

Metro United Way and our community depend on the thousands of volunteers in our midst.  Please take the opportunity to thank them for making our region a better place to live.

General Community, community service, Giving, Volunteer