Reflecting on my first few months in my role as Executive Director for Rice County Area United Way, I have learned a great deal about the community which has been my home for the past 20 years.
I have learned that our community is facing growing needs. This spring it has been a privilege to meet with United Way’s many funded partners to witness firsthand how local nonprofits are putting dollars to work to address challenges in our community. Ruth’s House of Hope manages sites in Northfield and Faribault, providing secure housing for women and their children as they work to recover from trauma, addiction, or domestic violence. The Community Action Center has seen unprecedented demand for its food shelves, serving over 25% of families in Northfield and more than a third of Faribault families. Our community partners have shared how much they rely on the United Way to provide unrestricted funds to address our community’s most urgent needs. Many of these essential services have been impacted by recent funding cuts and need our support more than ever. Your United Way donation stays local and has real impact.
Alongside learning about the urgent needs facing so many of our neighbors, I have also learned that our community is generous and compassionate. One of my first days in my position, I received an email from Karen Rasmussen from the Faribault branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW), an organization dedicated to advancing gender equity for women and girls through research, education, and advocacy. Karen was reaching out to share that the local branch had pooled their resources to give a donation to the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, one of our United Way’s keynote programs providing free books to over 1,800 children in our community. Enrolled children receive a book per month from birth through age 5. I had the chance to meet with some of the incredible women from AAUW to receive their generous donation. As we talked, they shared stories about growing up in a time when their opportunities were often limited just because they were girls. Listening to them, it was easy to see what drives them: they want every child in our community--regardless of gender--to have access to a strong education and the opportunities they didn’t always have.
Sifting through United Way’s daily mail is another opportunity to appreciate our community’s generosity. Did you know hundreds of donors come together to support United Way, and that donations come to us through dozens of unique pathways? For example, we have many local community members who work remotely. Their employer may be located outside of Minnesota but, through United Way’s workplace giving campaign, these community members are able to allocate dollars from their paycheck to support urgent needs right here in Rice County. It’s inspiring to see a list of donors from Montgomery, to Lonsdale, to Northfield and Faribault–all pooling together to help every family in our community thrive.
Whether you have never given to the United Way, or you are a lapsed or current donor, I invite you to join this powerful network creating real change. United is the way forward. United is the way we all thrive. Please join us at ricecountyunitedway.org/donate.