{"id":3291,"date":"2011-05-20T11:20:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T15:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=3291"},"modified":"2011-05-20T11:20:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-20T15:20:41","slug":"united-way-able-to-boost-allocations-after-solid-2010-11-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=3291","title":{"rendered":"United Way able to boost allocations after solid 2010-11 campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to generous donations, UW\/Southern Chester County able to put an additional $30,000 into local community groups and projects<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, UnionvilleTimes.com<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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United Way of Southern Chester County Board President Michael R. Horak, UWSCC Executive Director Carrie Freeman and Vice President - Campaign John Adams announce the results of the 2010-11 fundraising campaign, Wednesday.<\/p><\/div>\n

KENNETT SQUARE \u2014 With these tough economic times, it\u2019s doubly difficult to raise money, but at the same time, because of those hard times, many of the local groups that depend on funding from the United Way of Southern Chester County are in even greater need than ever.<\/p>\n

So when the leaders of United Way of Southern Chester County announced this week both the results of their 2010-11 fundraising campaign \u2014 and the allocation plan for the coming year \u2014 they were justifiably proud and knew they set a tough goal, falling just short of the $1.2 million they hoped to bring in. But coming close means that allocations \u2014 just when they\u2019re most needed \u2014 will be able to increase from $835,000 to $865,000 in the coming budget year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we were all confident of reaching $1.1 million,\u201d said Michael R. Horak, president of the organization\u2019s board of directors. \u201cWe wanted to try and stretch, though, and see if we could get to $1.2 million. We got close, about 93% so far, so we\u2019ll be able to increase allocations. We would have liked to raise more, of course, but a lot of people worked hard to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally challenging, pointed out John Adams, the group\u2019s Vice President in charge of the fundraising campaign, is that many area employers have less employees \u2014 which hurts fundraising in two ways: less employees to be able to make paycheck deductions to United Way and in general, less jobs means less people in a position to make contributions.<\/p>\n

Despite those challenges, the United Way of Southern Chester County, thanks to hundreds of donors, Horak said, will be in a position to help even more people in the coming year.<\/p>\n

Aside from dozens of volunteers and United Way board members, Horak cited DuPont and Exelon as examples of business partners that did wonderful work in helping to raise money for the area.<\/p>\n

Employees at local and non-local business played a big role, too, he noted.<\/p>\n

Topping the list of businesses not in the immediate Southern Chester County area (but with employees living in the immediate area): DuPont employees raised $280,718, while Bank of America raised $66,504, Agilent Technologies raised $32,340, Ashland raised $30,521, W.L. Gore raised $14,626 and AstraZeneca raised $12,606.<\/p>\n

Exelon\/PECO employees raised $112,657, while Giant Food Stores\u2019 employees donated $11,778 and Enterprise Rent-A-Car raised $6,661. Public employees got in the act, too, with employees of Kennett Consolidated School District raising $10,003, the Chester Water Authority bringing in $4,384 and employees of the Oxford School District raising $3,891.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just businesses and employees. Local retirement communities raised impressive amounts of money: Kendal in Kennett Township brought in $26,615, while Jenners Pond in Jennersville raised $14,405, Crosslands in Pennsbury contributed $14,405 and Cartmel, also in Pennsbury, raised $9,700.<\/p>\n

Two high-profile fund-raising events were big successes, too. The Unionville-Chadds Ford School District Community Pasta Dinner raised $13,806, up more than $3,000 from 2010 (the first year of the event) and the debut of the Exelon\/United Way Road Rally raised $9,887.<\/p>\n

As impressive as the numbers raised by the people of Southern Chester County, the need for help grows every year. While the $865,000 in planned allocations will go to various agencies and organizations, the giving will fall into five basic categories:<\/p>\n