Dan Woods talks with Elizabeth Shelton, Executive Director of United Way of Southeast Missouri. Elizabeth shares about the organization's programming highlights and upcoming 70th birthday.
Woods:
This is KRCU’s going public. I'm Dan Woods. I'm joined in the studio by Elizabeth Shelton. She's the executive director of United Way of Southeast Missouri. Hi, Elizabeth.
Shelton:
Hi, Dan. It's great to be back.
Woods:
Yes, good to have you here. I wanted to visit with you to do some updating on some of the many activities that have been taking place at United Way. One thing I want to ask you about to start us off is keeping the region cool with air conditioners. What happened with that over the summer?
Shelton:
Well, that was one of those things that we were able to respond to quickly. Even though we are part of a global organization, we act locally, we think locally, and we can be nimble. So, we and our partners, and First Call for Help were getting calls back when it was, you know, when it was in the high 90s, and that heat index was triple digits from people who either had no AC at all or they had malfunctioning ACs. And we just thought, you know, what can we do to help? This is terrible. And every now and then, we will have a partner who is not able to use the full allocation amount that we give them for various reasons. So, we had some money left that we were able to use. We went out and purchased air conditioners, and we were able to give away 30. We had a waiting list, so we went out and bought 10 more. We gave away 10 more air conditioners.
Woods:
So, a total of 40 air conditioners. That's fantastic.
Shelton:
It was. And we had, you know, we had some pregnant ladies coming in, and we had a senior come in who told us that her fixed income is $1,100 a month. That's what she's living on. A lot of people who were so incredibly grateful.
Woods:
I guess that's one of those things that you weren't expecting that to happen. It sort of just bubbled up, and you met the need at the time. You told me you may want to try to do that again next year.
Shelton:
We think we are. We're going to plan ahead this time. We work with someone who has been really good to help us, and we think we'll be able to get air conditioners near cost. So, that's what we're going to do. It has been a challenge to try to determine what, you know, what kind of requirements we might need to include. So, we did ask people to bring in proof of being a senior citizen, or a veteran, or on disability. I think this time, we might actually do a little bit more than that. Have our First Call for Help social worker in there to sit down with people and say, you know, “What's going on? What else can we help you with?” And have…invite some of our other partners who provide social work services to perform a similar function. Because, as we say everywhere we go, rarely does someone have just one need, and rarely can just one organization meet that need. So, this is a great opportunity for us to use this one need to be able to provide additional resources.
Woods:
You also did Stuff the Bus, which has been going on...how many years now?
Shelton:
It was our 10th year.
Woods:
How did it go?
Shelton:
It went really well. We were glad…we're always glad when it's not 98 degrees out there on the Walmart blacktop. So, it was good. Our schools are always so grateful, and we've kind of got it streamlined now that the schools just leave with the supplies. We used to go to one of our partners. It was frequently the Salvation Army, where we would divvy them all up. And now, if a school shows up and they have a bus, they literally stuff their bus and drive it off. They distribute them to the kiddos who need them.
Woods:
That's a great program. United We Work…we've talked about that in the past. How is that program doing?
Shelton:
It's going great. We have some real success stories. In fact, KFVS generously donated a video to us that we just finished shooting. It's on our website, unitedwayofsemo.org, and one of our success stories from United We Work is featured in that video. We have had…we've given about 1,000 rides to and from work now. We've helped more than 50 employees and more than 40 employers in Cape Girardeau County. One of the requirements to be able to get a month of free transportation is to meet with our banking partners and complete a budget, so that you can then be able to pay for half the price of transportation your second month. Two of the people who have participated in the program set up automatic savings, and they had a portion of their paycheck automatically put into the savings account when they were at the bank, and they were able to purchase their own vehicles. So, those are the success stories that we love sharing.
Woods:
Let's talk a little about the Read to Succeed. I know we've talked about that in the past and it’s still growing and going strong, I would imagine.
Shelton:
Yes, it is. Read to Succeed is also in its, I think, 13th year now. For the first year, though, Read to Succeed partnered with the Boys and Girls Club, and we were at their summer camp this summer. We're super excited about that and hope that we'll be able to continue that every year. I know that some of your listeners are Read to Succeed volunteers. We have university employees and athletes who are Read to Succeed volunteers. Some of the lady Redhawks have come, who play basketball, to help. That will be starting up again around the middle of September, and we need volunteers to give 30 minutes of their time a week, or more if they can, to go sit with a kindergartner or first grader and have them read to you. If you can do that, there's information on our website about Read to Succeed under our volunteer/get involved sub menu.
Woods:
Okay, the one last thing I want to ask you about is a birthday.
Shelton:
Yes!
Woods:
What is this about a birthday?
Shelton:
You know, because we just don't have enough going on. We are celebrating our 70th year. United Way is more than 100 years old, but we--United Way of Southeast Missouri--are celebrating our 70th year. Nineteen fifty-four was our very first giving campaign. It was the United Fund. We've changed names through then, and we've expanded our geographic footprint. So, we are having a big birthday party. Normally, in August, we have a kickoff luncheon. But this year, instead of doing that, we're having a birthday party that is a carnival for grown-ups. It is on Saturday, November 9, at the Eagles Club. We have a lot of fun activities planned. We're going to have a magician, mouse races…
Woods:
Mouse races?
Shelton:
Yes, mouse races. I'm excited to see that. I never have. Lots of just, you know, typical midway carnival games, but it's for grown-ups. For example, the bottle toss is going to be for spirits and things along those lines. We feel we're…in the United Way tradition. It's not a gala, and we're trying to keep it very affordable. So, in advance, tickets are $35, and they're $40 at the door, and that includes midway food and all of these great acts. You can pay extra if you want to do mouse races and some of the other things. We have a specialty cocktail or mocktail in honor of our 70th, and we're just really excited. We hope the community will come out and have a lot of fun.
Woods:
Lots of exciting things happening in United Way.
Shelton:
Yeah, thanks for giving me the opportunity to share them.
