Inside WSU

WSU employees support and use United Way

Last year, 278 WSU employees — about 15 percent of the WSU work force — donated $43,600 to the local United Way of the Plains fund drive.

WSU faculty, staff and their immediate families also used United Way-supported services on more than 1,200 occasions last year.

"We were generous contributors as a campus, but we were also major beneficiaries," said Bruce Erickson, executive director for marketing and communications and volunteer campus campaign manager.

That is one reason Erickson encourages more employees to participate as donors this year.

"Most people probably do not think of university faculty and staff as clients of social service agencies, but, in fact, WSU employees were served by dozens of programs last year," Erickson said.

WSU employees and their families were served by a hospice program, services for cerebral palsy, mental health, cancer, heart disease, Senior Services and child care, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and a number of others, he said.

Participation at any level is better than non-participation, said Woody DePontier, director of facilities maintenance and also a campaign leader.

"If all of us contributed the equivalent of one or two hours per month of our wages and salaries, WSU would set a new record for giving as a campus," DePontier said.

Mike Turner, director of human resources and a longtime United Way volunteer, said giving to the United Way is easy to do, especially through payroll deduction.

"More than 80 percent of WSU employees who give use payroll deduction," said Turner. "United Way is the simplest way to help the largest number of people, including our friends, neighbors and fellow employees."

To contribute, WSU employees fill out a pledge card, available from human resources, and send it to Turner, box 15.

Erickson encourages deans, directors, chairs and supervisors to invite a United Way speaker to staff meetings for brief presentations. The United Way has also invited WSU groups to hold their regular staff meetings at a nearby United Way agency.

To invite a United Way speaker or to schedule a meeting at one of the many agencies, call Deinda Royse, at United Way, 267-1321, or Erickson, ext. 3051.

The United Way of the Plains campaign ends Nov. 12. Its goal is to raise $14.5 million to support more than 100 programs at 34 agencies.

Giving away millions

Three members of the WSU community not only donate money to the United Way of the Plains, they help spend it.

Naomi Strong, Marty Shawver and Jim Kelley are among 200 trained community volunteers who visit agencies and make funding recommendations to the local United Way board of directors. Last year, United Way gave away $14.3 million.

"It’s very involved," says Strong, who has volunteered for this role for more than a decade. "But it’s also very rewarding to me. What it does for me is allow me to have input as a citizen. And as a donor, I have a voice in the process."

Strong, the Rhatigan Student Center’s personnel director, currently chairs the United Way panel that visits the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Senior Services and the United Methodist Urban Ministries.

While Kelley, dean of university academic programs, has supported United Way for years, this was the first year he saw how donations are put to work. "It was enlightening," he says of his visits that included KETCH and United Cerebral Palsy.

Having been a board member for a number of United Way-funded agencies, Shawver has had some concerns about how agencies were funded. She, too, served for the first time on an allocations panel and came away with a better impression of the United Way.

"It was a good experience to see the inner workings of United Way, and it gave me a more optimistic attitude," says Shawver, dean of undergraduate studies.

— Amy Geiszler-Jones


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