The United Way of Thunder Bay is still about $575,000 short of its annual fundraising goal, but campaign chairman Jules Tupker remains convinced they’ll hit their $2.52-million target.
On Wednesday the campaign got a $181,000 boost from municipal employees, who unveiled their contribution at a luncheon held at the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium.
Tupker said employee campaigns are the major contributor to the United Way’s effort each year totaling about 60 per cent of the target, with the municipal share never failing to astound.
“It’s remarkable what the employees of the City of Thunder Bay do for our campaign,” Tupker said.
“Why do I think that? I think they are very philanthropic. They realize the need for our campaign. They want to help out the citizens of Thunder Bay and it’s very important they do that.”
Municipal chairwoman Carol Busch, the city’s manager of finance, said the 2011 total is $6,900 more than 2010, a sure sign the city campaign is getting bigger and better each year, despite repeated challenges.
“We see a huge transition of staff, and that was one of the challenges on the city side of the campaign. But we’ve got great people coming in. We have very eager and inspiring volunteers who spread and advocate for the United Way and the great programs they provide through 27 funded agencies,” said Busch, who will serve as the overall chairwoman for the United Way in 2012.
Expending the effort is well worth it for everyone involved, she added.
“We want to make our community a better place to be. We want to be leaders. We want to inspire and motivate other individuals and really change starts with us,” Busch said.
“It starts with each and every one of us doing what we can in terms of financial support, volunteering of our time and advocating to make this great community of ours even better.”
Tupker said the money will make a difference, and made a last-ditch plea to the community to dig deep in the final couple of weeks of the campaign.
“So far we are sort of on the line for making our goal, but it’s going to be very, very tight … But we still have 17 days left. As always, we certainly hope that everybody that hasn’t contributed yet will be reminded of the need and that they will contribute this year,” he said.
The contribution came from donations from four separate entities within the municipal payroll: City employees gave $133,172, Superior North EMS gave $34,052, the Thunder Bay District Social Services Administration Board gave $12,224 and the Thunder Bay Public Library chipped in $2,498.
