In the News
April 19, 2013 –
MacDonald to chair United Way campaign
Lori MacDonald can add a pair of red suspenders to her wardrobe.
The new chair of the United Way for Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington accepted the traditional badge of office from outgoing chair Lloyd Fleming during a volunteer appreciation breakfast at the Rogers K-Rock Centre Friday morning. She will be heading up the 71st annual fall campaign.
MacDonald is the Correctional Service of Canada’s regional deputy commissioner for Ontario and has been involved with the United Way since her first days on the job as one of the first female correctional officers to work in a maximum security prison in Canada.
“My first year of work as a correctional officer was to assist in a barbeque and it was a very rewarding experience for me,” she said. “And every single year for the past 30 years I remained as a volunteer for the United Way, hosting events, doing challenges, creating activities, raising money, being chairs of campaigns here locally and in Ottawa.”
Taking over the top job at the United Way came at just the right time in her professional career.
“I felt really called to do that,” she said.
“It actually was a very easy decision. I worked on the board of governors last year with the United Way and I was so inspired by the people around me who have very busy jobs just like I do, who don’t even stop for a moment or blink an eyelid at giving their time to the United Way.”
She hopes to increase participation in the organization.
“If I can do one thing in this campaign it will be to expand our contributions through volunteerism, to increase the number of people who actually give, that participate in United Way fundraising,” she said.
“How do we get people to become involved? From my perspective, there is not a person in our community that is not touched by an agency of the United Way somehow.”
Source: Michael Lea, Kingston Whig-Standard
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