ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DON RATZLAFF
Supporters of bringing United Way into Marion County made their case to a group of community leaders at an informational meeting Thursday at Kingfisher’s Inn, rural Marion.
The group of about 25 people included members of a county task force working toward that goal, representatives from Harvey County United Way, employees from several area nonprofit agencies and institutions, and selected community leaders from around the county.
Jessie Nikkel, who heads the task force, said establishing the United Way in Marion County would help local charities that provide services, residents who need the services and businesses that are asked to financially support the charities.
Other members of the task force are Cynthia Flaming, Laura Legg, Vince Nikkel, Linda Ogden and Sherry Soyez.
Nikkel said bringing the United Way into the county would help nonprofit service providers raise more money and thus expand their services to residents.
“Almost weekly we read in the newspaper of budget cuts and decreases in government funding,” Nickel said. “Therefore, we read of our own local agencies and communities having to cut back on volume and/or services that they’re providing due to those budget cuts.
“That’s one thing among many that United Way would do for Marion County,” she said. “It would help fund our local agencies as well as agencies that we might not have locally-but that we could have access to if we had some additional funding to send their way.”
Businesses that are frequently solicited by charitable causes would benefit, too, Nikkel said.
“It would allow your business to contribute to one entity a year and know that the money that you’ve given is going to local charities and local agencies that are benefitting you and your employees.”
United Way also provides a means for employees to contribute to charities of their choice through their employer-regardless where that charity may be based, but as long as it has been approved by the local United Way allocation committee.
Nikkel said key to the work of the United Way is bringing together a cross-section of volunteers from a given area to direct the work. One of the functions is the formation of an allocation committee, which gathers and then scrutinizes applications from nonprofit agencies and organization that would like to be included in United Way’s fund-raising campaign each October.
Loren Friesen, a former Hillsboro resident who now lives in Newton and serves on the board of Harvey County United Way, said the coming together of community representatives results in additional benefits.
For one thing, it makes a community more aware of the kinds of services that are available for residents.
“I was just absolutely amazed at all the different services that are provided by these charities,” Friesen said about his beginning involvement with HCUW.
The exposure is also good for the agencies or organizations providing the services, he added.
“As community leaders gather around to help in this cause and become visible, each one of these agencies gets elevated a little bit in terms of its legitimacy,” Friesen said. “It really helps with their public image.
“The other thing that happens is that for many of these agencies, especially the very small shops that simply don’t have anybody specifically assigned to fund-raising, the United Way ends up being the event that raises the most money for their annual fund-even though they may have the bake sales, garage sales and other special projects to raise some money.
“But in many cases, the United Way drive is the largest single source of funds for these people because they don’t have any specific fund-raising professional (on staff),” said Friesen, who is the full-time director of Newton Community & Healthcare Foundation.
In turn, the community also is served as leaders become more aware of how the agencies and organizations operate-and whom they aim to serve.
“You have a full set of people in the community who now know a lot more about these agencies,” he added. “What you are doing is helping develop resources for agencies that in many cases are serving those of lower income who are really struggling to make ends meet. That really gives a sense of satisfaction.”
Friesen said people coming together for a good cause strengthens a community.
“Like any community project, whether it’s the county fair, some other festival or something else, when you get people from all over the community working together on a common cause, there’s really some good stuff that comes out of that,” Friesen said.
As part of the informational meeting, representatives from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Marion County, the American Red Cross and the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation described how the United Way has, or would, benefit their mission.
Nickel said community leaders and individuals have been exploring the possibility of bringing United Way into Marion County for some time now, but progress has been slow.
“For reasons unknown, it hasn’t ever gone anywhere,” Nikkel said.
One reason may be the daunting challenge of starting something new, she suggested.
“It’s easy to run an organization if it’s already established,” Nikkel said. “Somebody steps in, somebody tells me how it’s done, how they did it last year, and you go from there. When it’s brand new, it is a little bit more difficult.”
The biggest need, she said later, was for additional volunteers to help make initial contacts with area businesses and community leaders.
“Everybody supports (the idea of) United Way, but the volunteers aren’t there,” Nikkel said. “That’s what we need right now.”
As a result of the meeting, Nikkel said six more people had signed up for the task force.
As it considers the future, Marion County has several options to choose from, Nikkel said. The options range from merging with HCUW to establishing an independent chapter.
“Harvey County, I’m thankful to say, was very receptive to Marion County, due to the fact they thought we needed the United Way,” she said. “Their board agreed unanimously they would continue to support us in helping us get a Marion County United Way started. A committee from their board has been formed to help us in any way they can.”
Nikkel said the next step is for the local task force to decide how the United Way in Marion County should operate.
“We would be the ones who would make that decision as well as to explore that,” she said. “We’re going to meet alone as Marion County, and we’ll probably meet several times yet with Harvey County.”
Nikkel said said she would welcome more volunteers who would be interested in helping to bring United Way into the county. She can be reached at Central National Bank in Marion by calling 620-382-2129.
