By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
An annual campaign by the United Way of Greater St. Joseph to raise money to put back into the community kicked off on Thursday.
More than 200 people gathered at the Fulkerson Center on the campus of Missouri Western State University to start the campaign.
President Kylee Strough says the dollars raised through the campaign improve lives through the network of United Way partner agencies
"There's 17 agencies and then seven initiatives that United Way runs as well as we're able to make grants to emerging and emergency issues that happen in the community," Strough tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And all that is decided by volunteers."
Strough says the staff of United Way simply help facilitate a way for people to care about each other in the community and bring people together during the campaign.
Before volunteers head out into the public, several businesses around St. Joseph help set the pace for United Ways annual campaign.
To date Pacesetter companies have raised a record amount coming in at $900,349
Campaign Co-Chair Michelle Clark says the biggest contributor to that amount is a community effort.
"It's a lot of volunteer effort that goes into the Pacesetters, it's individuals within those companies that really advocate for United Way and set up those meetings with the employees to help educate them on what United Way does and how they can give," Clark tells reporters following the kickoff breakfast.
Strough says these Pacesetter numbers help give an early idea of how the community is feeling
"If the pacesetter results company by company are looking lower than the year before, we're going to ask have the community members lost trust in United Way, or is there something else at play," Strough explains.
Such as higher prices. But on the other hand, Strough says if the Pacesetter number is higher than in the past
"We're going to want to find out why did you choose to give this year and not before, or why did you choose to increase your gift, because we want to do more of what you love in this community and we need you to tell us what that is," Strough says.
The United Way campaign runs through November 2nd.
