In the News
August 22, 2013
More than a dozen United Way volunteers from various businesses and organizations around the city got to see first-hand Thursday morning where their hard work and money goes.
The United Way held its annual Seeing Is Believing bus tour, taking the representatives from the individual workplace campaigns to a half-dozen agencies that benefit from the dollars collected each year.
Kim Hockey, the director of community investment for the United Way, said the annual tour “is a great opportunity for the United Way to bring members from our community and volunteers from the various workplaces to get a first-hand glimpse into some of the programs and services that are funded by United Way.”
The volunteers from the campaigns get the chance to see the good work that is being done, she added.
“They are going to go back to their workplaces and, in many cases, lead fundraising campaigns, so they are able to really tell the stories of the impact of the donor dollars.”
The Seeing Is Believing tour has been criss-crossing the city for at least 10 years, she said.
The participants boarded a bus at the Memorial Centre at 9 a.m. and spent the next three hours checking out the Canadian Hearing Society, Outreach St. George’s, the Kingston Youth Shelter, the Boys and Girls Club of Kingston and Area, and the Youth Diversion program.
“What we really strive to do is to show people programs that are aligned with the different impact areas that United Way funds,” said Hockey.
They always ask the volunteers for their reactions at the end of the tour and if anything surprised them, she said.
“Often they are not aware at all of the complexity of needs that people have and also of the array of programs and services that are in our community to help people.”
The volunteers are also often surprised at the resourcefulness of the agencies and how they depend so much on the volunteers and partners in the community in their day-to-day operations, she said.
Justine Deloyer, Invista’s employee campaign co-ordinator, was on the tour for the first time.
“I wanted to see more of what the United Way does so that I can bring that back to my company,” she said.
“It’s amazing. You can’t believe how many different agencies that the United Way gets to help. And you can see how much just a little bit of funding might be able to help these agencies, which is awesome.”
Matthew English, from Novelis, was also on his first tour.
“It’s amazing to see the breadth of people that United Way helps,” he said. “It just covers an entire population. They have the Success By Six program, targeting children from newborn to the age of six. Today we saw an agency that’s helping the elderly with their hearing.”
He said it was “shocking” how many agencies need the United Way dollars to continue operating.
Source: Michael Lea, Kingston Whig- Standard
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