Funded & Donor Partners Celebrated by United Way

Sedalia-Pettis County United Way celebrated its most recent campaign with an awards luncheon held Friday at Best Western, 32nd and Limit.

The theme for the 2018-19 campaign was “Embrace Community As Family,” and the luncheon was a way to celebrate funded partners and donor partners, according to SPCUW Executive Director Staci Harrison.

“We're looking at all the successes that we had in 2018 that is leading us into 2019,” she said. “We're going into a discovery period so that we can identify what changes we need to make within ourselves so that we can provide a better service to Pettis County, and meet needs at a greater level. So we're really looking forward to what the future has to offer and (seeing) the community doing on this transformational journey with us.”

Harrison admitted she didn't know how United Way could come up with a better campaign theme. “I thought it was just a genius statement to make on the impact we're trying to make here in Pettis County,” she said. “That's at the heart of what we do.”

Harrison had been at the helm of the SPCUW for five years, and she admits she loves her job. “How can you not love this job?,” she asked, crediting her volunteer board of directors for the wonderful work they do for United Way every day. “They're very genuine in the investments they make.”

The 2018-19 campaign raised around $375,000.

2019 SPCUW President Megan Hartman said United Way will need to take a good look at what works and what doesn't and make some major strategic decisions moving forward to support Pettis County.

As for the most recent campaign, Hartman admitted the campaign fell a little behind, but was pleased with the huge support seen on the 2018 Day of Caring. According to Harrison there were 600 volunteers on 46 teams who took part in that event.

Hartman thanked all the donor partners for all their help. “We appreciate the donors more than anything. We couldn't be here without them. So we will continue to focus on donor relationships, and we plan to meet with donors individually,” she said.

Board member Phillip Mefford presented Gold Awards to 30 companies during the event. Gold Awards are given to companies or organizations who gave $1,000 or more to the campaign. Collectively, they gave more than $346,749 to the campaign, “so truly they are the pillar of our campaigns,” Mefford said.

Gold Award recipients included:

Bothwell Regional Health Center
Boys & Girls Club
Callis Integrated Marketing
Central Bank of Sedalia
City of Sedalia
County Distributing
Duke Manufacturing
Fischer Concrete
Gardner Denver
General Cable (Alcan Cable)
Heritage Fabrication
Katy Trail Community Health
KCP&L
Lamm Tech
Liberty Utilities
Maxion Wheels
Owen's Corning (Pittsburgh Corning)
PrintLynx
ProEnergy Services
Sedalia Public Schools
Septagon
SFCC
Simmons Bank
SMC Electric
Smithton Schools
Stanley Black & Decker (Waterloo)
Tyson Foods Employees
UPS
US Bank