Happy Holidays from United Way of the Lakeshore
BY CHRISTINE ROBERE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, UNITED WAY OF THE LAKESHORE
During this holiday season, we are thankful for all those who give their time, talent and treasure to United Way of the Lakeshore.
We truly could not do what we do for the community without our donors and volunteers – we are a volunteer driven organization through our Board of Directors and working committees, who help ensure that every dollar donated is invested wisely in our community, making it a great place to work, learn, live and play.
We have two key opportunities to donate and volunteer that may interest you. They are shared below. We wish you the happiest of holidays as you spend time with your loved ones. May 2018 be a year of joy, peace, and prosperity for you.
Nichols to Match Donations to Support Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in Our Communities! Thank you to Nichols for providing another $25,000 in matching funds to bring books to children in our community! This generous matching program was kicked off on Giving Tuesday, November 28, and will go through March 2018 or until the match is met by other generous donors.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is available to children in Muskegon and Oceana Counties who are under five years old. Each month a carefully selected book is delivered, in the child’s name, to their home. How exciting to get mail, especially when it’s a fun book to read!
To keep this program free for families in our community, the cost of the books and mailing (approximately $25.00 annually) is covered by local funding. Local affiliates of the Imagination Library have three responsibilities: to pay for the cost of mailing the books, to register the children in their area, and to manage the local database. Through funding by generous donors and facilitated by the United Way of Lakeshore, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is available in our community.
Donating in someone’s name makes a great gift too; when the Morgenstern children donated in honor of their parents as a Christmas gift to them a few years ago, it helped to provide book delivery to many children.
You can make the gift of reading possible for children in our community! Click here to learn more, to donate and to help us get children reading early and reading often!
Make an Impact – Help Us Decide Where to Invest Donations. Please join us as a volunteer to help ensure that our investments are on target. The total annual time commitment is about 12 hours with meetings toward the end of the workday or in the early evening.
We welcome volunteers from each of our counties (Muskegon, Newaygo, and Oceana) to be involved in making the decisions on how and where we spend the individual donations that we get from the annual workplace campaign. United Way of the Lakeshore's community investment volunteers make the decisions on where to focus our resources. These local donors provide solutions to critical education, income and health issues facing people in the Lakeshore area. Dollars raised in a particular county are used to fund projects in only that county.
To volunteer to review programs for investments, please complete and return the Community Investment Volunteer form – click here for a form. You need only be a donor to United Way and have an interest in participating.
Help for the Holidays. Do you know someone who needs some extra help this holiday season? Call 2-1-1 to help connect them to resources in our community. Get started here. Click on the "Holiday Programs" to search by holiday.
United Way of the Lakeshore is uniting to inspire change and build thriving communities. Our Bold Goal – 10,000 more working families meet their basic needs by 2025. For more information, contact United Way of the Lakeshore at (231) 722-3134. Learn more about United Way of the Lakeshore at UnitedWayLakeshore.org, like the organization on Facebook and receive up to date information from Twitter at twitter.com/uwlakeshore.
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Worlds, the first Gary Scott Beatty retrospective is now on Amazon. This 96 page collection includes early work, unpublished art, in-depth articles, a jazz art gallery and more. Click here for “Worlds.”
