By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
United Way of Greater St. Joseph has kicked off its fundraising campaign announcing the Pacesetter campaign has raised nearly $900,000.
Campaign co-chair, Doug Walter, says the United Way is important, because its agencies touch so many lives.
“It could be you. None of us know when our time of need is going to be. United Way reaches out to everybody in our community. From cradle to grave, there’s an opportunity to find help and find support through United Way,” Walter tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “We support United Way, because we believe that’s a way to make a tremendous difference in our community.”
The United Way held its official campaign kickoff event Thursday morning during an event on the Missouri Western State University campus.
The campaign theme this year is “Better Days made by You.”
A preliminary Pacesetter campaign number of $873,278.80 was announced though more money from the various Pacesetter companies is expected to come in.
Walter says though the campaign is now officially underway, it has been going on behind the scenes for a while.
“It’s been going on for about 60 days, maybe 90 days, as we kind of get with CEOs and kind of get this thing started,” Walter says. “But the pacesetters are organizations that have just said we’d like to run the campaign early; we’d like for you to be able to announce the results as an encouragement to others.”
Walter, who is lead pastor at Ashland United Methodist Church, co-chairs the campaign with his wife, Carol.
Carol Walter says the Greater St. Joseph United Way no longer sets a campaign raising goal.
“Our goal is just to raise as much as possible. Two-point-five million was (raised) last year. We hope to do at least that,” Carol Walter says. “So, there’s not a goal, but we always want to just do as much as possible in the community.”
The $2.5 million raised last year supports the United Way’s 17 member agencies, which provide a wide range of services. The Greater St. Joseph United Way fundraising campaign wraps up November 7th.
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