United Way nears goal as campaign enters home stretch

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This article was published 21/12/2018 (2675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE United Way Winnipeg fundraising campaign began this year with a pull, and is ending with a push.

In September, numerous Winnipeggers attended the launch, pulling together for their community by pulling aircraft. Now, with the end of the campaign just weeks away, the charity is pushing for people to generously donate to help it reach its final goal.

Barb Gamey, this year’s United Way Winnipeg campaign chairwoman and chief executive officer of Payworks, said the campaign has raised about 90 per cent of its goal of $21 million.

“We are doing well,” she said this week. “We wanted to be at 90 per cent just before Christmas and we are. This last 10 per cent is the big pull.

“We know we’re bumping into the holiday season now — we don’t want it to be lost in everything.”

If you haven’t made a donation yet to the United Way, now is the time, officials said. They will announce the final dollar amount at an event Jan. 17.

Gamey said if the organization doesn’t reach the goal, it would mean agency partners would receive the same funding as last year. But if it does hit $21 million, the United Way “could offer them two per cent, three per cent, or four per cent more, which would help them help more children, more adults and more families.”

The United Way helps more than 100 agency partners who are visited more than 325,000 times per year. If the United Way reaches its goal and raises an additional $1 million from last year, it would mean it could help 11,000 more Winnipeggers.

Throughout the campaign, which kicked off Sept. 13, and in the pages of the Free Press, we’ve seen how the United Way assists the community.

We’ve seen how SEED Winnipeg, which receives funding from the United Way, helped Bukky Omoruku, an immigrant from Nigeria who had recently left an abusive relationship, attend the College of Registered Nurses bridging program. She is now a nurse at Deer Lodge Hospital and a personal care home.

We’ve seen how Let It Out Summer Band Camp, now called Rock It Out, a United Way-supported program also supported by the Mood Disorders Association of Manitoba, helped Griffin Jenkins turn his life around while dealing with mental-health issues. He now works as a freelance mental-health educator, while enrolled in business administration at the University of Winnipeg — and also continues to play in a band (A Grizzly Fate).

We’ve also seen how the Winnipeg Poverty Reduction Council, a United Way initiative which works with a consortium of 12 employers in the city, is working to help Indigenous youth build connections and relationships that will lead to future jobs.

Rose Tobacco-Olson is another Winnipegger who has been helped by the United Way.

The 22-year-old became involved with Pathways to Education, a program which the Community Education Development Association runs in inner-city schools, while in Grade 9. Through that program she received help from a counsellor who found financial support for her while making sure she didn’t fall behind in her studies.

Today, Tobacco-Olson is at the University of Winnipeg, enrolled in a double major of criminal justice and human rights, while she continues towards her goal of becoming a lawyer practicing international human rights law at The Hague.

“They helped me in a lot of ways, but mostly with the mentorship,” she said. “Without this program, I’m not sure where I would be. Before I was in the program, my journey was very tough. I probably wouldn’t be where I am today without the program.

“And I wouldn’t have the confidence to go for my dreams.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca