The organization has just over a month to meet the $425,000 mark.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

FARMINGTON – There’s a sketch of a frog squeezing a blue heron’s neck with all its might as the bird tries to swallow it. The caption advises people to never give up.

That frog is Nancy Morgan.

More then a week after the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area held its finale dinner last Tuesday, the funding clearinghouse for 25 area social services was well short of its $425,000 goal for the 2004 capital campaign.

So far, $290,000 has been pledged, $7,000 short of 70 percent of the campaign goal.

Which agencies will get funding, and how much, will be decided Jan. 22 when an allocation committee meets with representatives to review budget proposals.

That means the local United Way has just over a month to meet its $425,000 goal.

Morgan, executive director of the UWTVA, is hanging on tight to the notion that the goal will be reached.

“I still feel real good about it,” she said Wednesday. “I still think we’re going to do OK. I believe we are going to reach our goal, but it’s going to be really hard to get there.”

The $425,000 goal is the loftiest the organization has ever set. Last year, it met the $400,000 goal but that was before the war in Iraq and the local economy deteriorating further as several area mills closed.

While politicians in Washington say the economy is on the rebound, Morgan said people in Franklin County aren’t seeing it yet, and that may be why fund-raising is so difficult this time around.

But, she stressed that even a $5 contribution goes a long way and encourages people to give whatever they can, even if it’s not a lot.

“Every dollar helps. It doesn’t have to be mega dollars. In the end, every dollar adds up to making a difference,” Morgan explained.

If the United Way isn’t able to reach its goal, or even raise as much as it did last year, Morgan fears the negative impact would be felt if agencies are forced to make service cuts at a time where the agencies’ services are needed more than ever.

She is not the only one.

Janine Winn, executive director of Sexual Assault Victims Emergency Services based in Farmington, said United Way funds support the school-based intervention and prevention program. The program puts a school-based advocate, Kristin Plummer, into each high school in the county for one day each week. More than 100 students a year get one-on-one support through Plummer, and more than 1,000 students are taught prevention.

“We’ve helped many, many kids and it’s very effective,” Winn said.

But if the United Way doesn’t reach its goal and can’t give SAVES at least the same amount it doled out last year, Winn fears cuts will have to be made.

One of the only places to make cuts is in staffing, she said.

“If we lost a third of our funding, it would seriously hurt our school program,” Winn explained. “We’d have to look at cutting hours which would be the last thing we want to do.”

Morgan and Winn both hope the holidays will inspire people to be generous and support the agency. To make a donation, contact the UWTVA at 778-5048 or log on to www.uwtva.org.

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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