Dannalee Baker sees a continuum, a thread, that links the four Christmas Cheer charities this year.
“To us here at the United Way, it really comes down to dignity,” she said.
Baker, the agency’s director of community impact, said each charity chosen, from the many submissions received this year, deals with a basic need.
The New Life Mission and Sensational Soups address the right to have a meal, to not go hungry, while the Mission’s mandate expands on that, providing myriad services to its clients to help them find housing, sobriety, employment, self-respect.
The soup kitchen, which operates out of Mount Paul United Church, shares the sense of community and opportunities to relax and socialize, which are key components in a life.
The Y Women’s Emergency Shelter addresses another aspect of dignity in life, that of providing women and children a safe haven and resources to help them deal with violence that may be part of their daily existence.
While the shelter provides a temporary home for women and children, it also services many more who don’t need a bed or a place to escape, but a helpful voice on the other end of the phone who can help them with their quest for peace in their lives.
The Marjorie Willoughby Snowden Memorial Hospice Home provides dignity in a person’s final days, Baker said, with staff whose goal is to simply give the dying, their families and friends a warm, homelike place to share while providing the medical care needed to ease the dying process.
Baker was one of the four on the committee to choose the charities, sharing that duty with Larry Read of Thompson Rivers University and lawyer Scott Huyghebaert, both of whom have been tasked with that job in past years, along with KTW office manager Cindi Hamoline.
One of the roles the United Way Thompson-Nicola-Cariboo also assumed was creating a website for online donations.
In past years, donations had to be made in person or mailed in but, when KTW took over the community campaign — and having seen the effectiveness of the United Way’s online portal with the local RCMP’s Jail and Bail fundraiser — the decision was made to add a website to the campaign.
It’s not been an easy transition, with many phone conversations between us and the United Way to work out some of the glitches.
Neither the agency nor KTW, which had not dealt with the Cheer fund in the past, anticipated the number of anonymous and memorial donations being made and the software wasn’t created with that in mind.
There has been a lot of tweaking to get it right and, as Baker said, everything will be running smoothly this time next year.
The United Way also runs a major fundraiser every fall that benefits a range of community agencies and projects.
Baker said the most recent similar linkage was during fundraising for the John Tod Centre, where the United Way made available its infrastructure and expertise.
The infrastructure also guarantees due diligence and transparency are part of the campaign.
All donations, including those made at the KTW office at 1365B Dalhousie Dr., are recorded online and cash and cheques are deposited in a United Way bank account.
It also issues tax receipts for donations of $10 and more.
“We do this to make things easy, to provide easier ways for people to give,” Baker said.
“It’s all about the community. We are constantly looking at those big community projects.
“And, everybody has something to give — a kind word, $100, some time, some expertise. We all can give something.”
THANK YOU!
Tim Shoults: $50
In memory of Allan Radies: $200
T&I Anderson: $25
Richard and Fearon Blair: $175
Anonymous: $100
Gillian and Walter Gaiser: $40
Jo Ann and Peter Hall: $250
Phil and Cathy Holman: $100
Albert and Gaye Morrissette: $150
In memory of Dicey Robinson: $1,000
Arne and Pinky Saastad: $25
KTW staff: $276
Colleen Stainton: $200
Diane and Christ Wells: $100
Western Karate Academy: $10,000
Judy Wiebe: $100
Edna Yansa: $300
Anonymous: $100
Anonymous: $100
Ken and Gladys Klepachek: $100
TRU finance department: $250
Cathy Eckhart: $50
Geoffrey Gibbard: $100
Verita and Case Van Diemen: $1,500
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $20
In loving memory of Jim Totten: $100
In memory of Wilf Schmidt: $200
Lil and Harry Frances: $50
Anonymous: $25
Mel and Wilda Bronken: $100
Anonymous: $75
Terry and Dick Taylor: $100
Ed and Dianne Barker: $200
Alison Bepple: $25
In memory of Kaye Whiteman: $25
Bob and Jo-Mary Hunter: $200
John and Eileen Jones: $75
In memory of Sandy: $100
A&C McNeely: $100
Catherine Oakden: $100
Shirley Ross: $100
Stephen Griffiths: $30
The Hanes family in memory of Bob and Brett: $100
Anonymous: $100
Jaime MItchell’s headscarf: $200
Jesse and Claire Weymouth: $50
Paula and Brad Gardner: $60
Anonymous: $150
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $50
Anonymous: $50
Millie and Stan Malanchuk in memory of Sophie: $50
Spencer and Janet Bryson: $200
Bill and Carol Greenhalgh: $500
June and Ken Wallin: $100
Jane-Ellen Doubt: $100
Shirley Brown: $100
Keith and Doreen Eastcott: $200
John and Mereda Innis: $100
CML Properties: $500
Christopher Wass: $75
Margaret Houghton: $100
Orval and Nadia Olafson: $100
Wayne and Twink Murphy: $25
John and Arline Agassiz: $100
Gwen Mackinder in memory of Minnie Cook: $100
Anonymous: $250
In memory of Lewis McIntyre: $100
In memory of Ross Sparrow: $50
Alexis Percy: $280
Donald Wood and Sandra Mori: $100
Evelyn Meyer: $100
Anonymous: $50
Kay Prichard: $25
Mike and Helen McBride: $100
Anonymous: $5
Chris and George Hart: $50
Anonymous: $50
KTW bottle drive: $116
Anonymous: $100
Anonymous: $25
Anonymous: $50
Rosemary Anderson: $50
Sue McGowan: $100
Anonymous: $50
Sheila Knight: $50
Anonymous: $100
Dave and Helen Gulley: $100
Dearborn Motors: $1,000
Don and Debby Erickson: $100
Anonymous: $100
Lizzie Orr McCoid: $100
Sheila Knight: $50
Marlene Larson: $100
Anonymous: $100
Margaret Sandulak: $50
Dino Bernardo: $100
Sun Rivers Men’s Night members: $250
In memory of Wayne, Christa, Gail and Amy: $100
Overlanders’ Women’s Institute: $200
Donate online here, at KTW’s office at 1365B Dalhousie Dr. (Mondays to Fridays, 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.) or at the United Way office at 177 Victoria St.
The post KTW Christmas Cheer Fund: Dignity is the link between charities appeared first on Kamloops This Week.