The official announcement will be made Aug. 25. The agency will hold its second annual virtual campaign kickoff at www.liveunitedgc.org beginning at 11:30 a.m. Aug. 25. The campaign runs through October.

“It would be an extraordinary accomplishment,” campaign chair David Dougherty told the Enquirer. “We hoped to have a tailwind, and signs certainly looked that way a year ago, but we’re still facing a headwind.”

The flipside to the economic problems is greater need on part of the community.

“It’s a jobless recovery,” Dougherty said.

The Freestore Foodbank, a United Way agency that helps to supply 450 food banks in 20 regional counties, is facing record demand for food and services.

Dougherty, former president and chief executive of Convergys Corp., said he and his staff had made 160 calls to CEOs of leading local companies and completed multiple campaign projections.

He said he is confident that $60.5 million can be reached but is concerned about the $1.5 gap between that amount and the $62.025 million goal. That difference gap that could mean funding or not – or reduced funding – for nonprofit agencies.

To close that projected gap, United Way has secured $2 million pledges from private and corporate donors – including Cincinnati Bell and Procter & Gamble – that will be used as a match for new givers. The goal is to gain 20,000 new donors to a pool that totals a little more than 100,000.

Almost 15,000 new donors gave in 2009.

“We love big donors, but even a dollar a week is important,” he said.

Another incentive is a donation contest between Ohio and Kentucky.

United Way distributes money to agencies and programs in Hamilton, Clermont, Brown and part of Butler counties in Ohio and Boone, Campbell, Kenton and Grant counties in Kentucky, as well as Dearborn and Ohio counties in Indiana.

Donors from Ohio can text UWOH and donors from Kentucky to UWKY. Then hit 85944. Donations for the state’s contest will be counted from 6 p.m. Sept. 3 through 10 p.m. Sept. 6.

Money donated in 2009 went to three key areas – education, income and health.

One priority is preparing children for success in kindergarten. In 2009, 53 percent of children entering kindergarten in Cincinnati Public Schools were assessed as “ready to read,” up from 44 percent in 2006. The goal this year is 59 percent.

In the past year, 1,738 people obtained jobs through United Way-funded workforce programs. The new goal is 1,800.

Last year, 3,427 elderly people received home-delivered meals through funded agencies, up from 2,042 in 2007. The goal this year is to exceed 3,500.

Workplace heroes

Melanie Wanzek

CTW Features

Community service is considered a good way for jobseekers to get experience while they look for a position. Volunteering can also benefit those who already have jobs – and their employers – by increasing productivity and helping create a more positive workplace.

A study at the University of Florida suggests that encouraging corporate volunteering, even during the workday, has a positive effect on employees. Jessica Rodell, the Ph.D. candidate who conducted the study, says volunteering made employees feel more connected with their employers and identify more with the company. By improving their view of their employer, they were more likely to engage in positive behaviors, such as serving on committees, speaking well of the company and voicing their opinions.

“Employees are going to feel better, not only about themselves, but about their company,” Rodell says. “And just simply by the act of feeling better, they’re going to do better.”

Employee volunteers were less likely to engage in negative behaviors, such as taking long lunches or surfing the Internet during work. Even if they spent time away from the office to volunteer, their subsequent improved attitude and productivity made up for hours lost.

“We see our employer doing something positive for others and think they’re better because of it,” Rodell says. “We think if they treat the community better, they will treat us better as employees, so we’re willing to give them as much as we can.”

Many companies already have volunteer programs in place. Rodell says six years ago, 35 percent of companies in the United States had some type of program, and the number is on the rise. Employee participation, on the other hand, often lags. Yet results seem to show that a program’s popularity doesn’t necessarily indicate how people feel.

“Companies maybe start to wonder if the programs are worthwhile,” she says. “But the results seem to say that it doesn’t matter whether employees actually use them or not. Just having the programs available has positive effects.”

Don’t have a company volunteer program yet? Consider suggesting one – you, your co-workers and your boss will benefit, as will the sites your company serves. Rodell says employee engagement increases when people find projects that are personally meaningful. Begin by looking for umbrella organizations like the United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s Workplace Volunteer Connection, which gives companies and individuals access to an extensive database of current volunteer opportunities. United Way senior associate Michelle Rummell, who runs the program, says implementing volunteerism in the workplace is important, since it’s where people spend much of their waking hours.

“People spend eight to ten hours each day at work, so it’s a great place to encourage volunteering and keep giving them the message that it’s a good thing,” Rummell says.

Talk to your boss about the benefits of running a program. Rummell says a lot of companies use volunteering as a method of team-building, rather than sending employees off for a conference or for a group challenge such as a ropes course.

Volunteer projects “bring groups very close, and [co-workers] see how well they can work together inside and outside of the office,” she says.

Volunteer projects offer a new venue to learn valuable skills and display organization and leadership capabilities to an employer while doing something worthwhile.

“Every group volunteer project is a chance for those people in a company to gain leadership experience and show their managers what they can accomplish,” Rummell says.

Finally, use the experience to realize the impact corporate volunteering has not only on the workplace but the community at large.

“A lot of our agencies wouldn’t be able to do what they do without volunteers,” Rummell says. “Once you actually go to an agency and see who you’re helping, I think that’s when you really feel it.”

I made a couple of calls last year that stuck in my mind.

One to a gentleman who’d given through his workplace campaign for many, many years. His wife answered. After learning who I was and why I was calling, she asked me to hold on — he needed to hear what I had to say, but was on the roof cleaning gutters, she’d go get him. And she did. I felt a little guilty, getting him off the roof just to say thanks. But he loved it.

Another call was to a woman who turned out to be a 30-year donor employed as a receptionist at one of our partner agencies. She shared stories of how personal her gift had become through the years as she greeted folks coming through the agency’s doors.

Sometimes the folks on the other end of the phone are surprised. Other times they’re just chatty.

Yesterday I spoke with a gentleman I’d reached on his cell as he and his wife were driving back from a Florida vacation. He was somewhere in north Georgia. We compared weather notes and agreed there was apparently no escaping the heat this summer.

I said thanks.

He said ‘no, thank you for what you all do.’

The grant comes from the Corporation for National and Community Services, a federal agency that operates the Senior Corps, Americorps and Learn and Serve America programs. Eleven grants will be handed out to organizations nationwide, according to a press release, and recipients were selected based on “a compelling program design, deep understanding of how to use evidence to drive community impact, a proven track record of achievement and strong organizational capacity,” according to a press release. The grant is distributed over two years.

The Strive partnership is made up of 300 organizations committed to improving student achievement in Greater Cincinnati’s urban areas.

“We are honored to receive this sizable grant and know it will help us build on years of collaborative work to identify what children and youth need to succeed from cradle to career,” said United Way CEO Rob Reifsnyder said in the release.

Debra Gordon, United Way campaign director, introduced each of the award winners and honorable mentions at the breakfast. She said the Exemplary Service Award went to Brown County Home Care, a program sponsored by Brown County Regional Healthcare, directed by Cheryl Phillips. Brown County Home Care allows many seniors to continue to live in their homes, and has been a steadily growing program since Phillips was named as director in 2007.

The Exemplary Service Award is given to an individual or organization that is able to complete their program specifications in an exemplary manner. Gordon said the program often has a waiting list, and continues to meet the nursing and home health needs of Brown County.

“Over the past two years the agency has been increased by 87 percent,” Gordon said.

Phillips accepted the award along with Adele Ducharme, from Brown County Regional Health Care. Phillips said she was honored to receive the award and thanked United Way for their cooperation in the program.

“Most of all I want to thank United Way for assisting us to work collaboratively to have an impact in the lives of the people of our community,” Phillips said.

Phillips, and Brown County Home Care, also received an honorable mention for the Resources Award which is given to individuals or organizations who significantly contribute to the success of the eastern area with time, money, advocacy, or in-kind contributions.

The winner of the Vision Award was Gina Bohl, director of curriculum and instruction at the Western Brown School District. According to Gordon, the Vision Award is given to an individual or organization who demonstrates vision and leadership resulting in the development, implementation, and improvement of a systemic change. Bohl has been instrumental in the district’s Success By 6 action committee, which helped to promote the concept of smooth transitions from early childhood to kindergarten.

Due to Bohl’s leadership, Western Brown was able to open a new Head Start classroom in one of the district’s elementary schools, two of the school’s child care programs are in the process of becoming quality rated, early childhood and kindergarten teachers are now actively participating in shared professional development, and the district is one of the state of Ohio’s Ready Schools.

“In Brown County, a couple of day cares were very reluctant to partner with us, but Gina’s persistence made it happen,” Gordon said. “Nobody can say no to Gina.”

Bohl accepted the award and said a large part of the award should go toward the Western Brown School staff and administration.

“It takes a team, it really does, it’s not just one person,” Bohl said. “I am lucky to work with a superintendent that is very visionary and a little bit of that is rubbing off on me. I’m working with a really good group of people who are willing to step out of their box, step out of their classroom and change the condition of our school.”

The recipient of the Marty MacVeigh Leadership award this year is Karren Robinson, retired program director of the Brown County Educational Service Center. According to Gordon, the award is the highest honor bestowed by the United Way of Greater Cincinnati. The winner of the award is selected out of all the nominations for the year, and is given to individuals who improve the lives of people in their communities.

Gordon said Robinson was instrumental in implementing the Brown County Recreation Program, which was designed to assist students with disabilities achieve academic success, as well as develop life skills through recreational activities and field trips. The trips help participants to see connections between their academic studies and their lives, while teaching about money, time, and safety precautions.

“Karren, this award is being presented to you for your 24 years of passion, advocacy, seamlessly inexhaustible energy and countless hours of dedication to meeting the needs of the special needs population in Brown County,” Gordon said. “You truly thought of your students before yourself, and as a result the participants of the program achieved the highest potential for academic success and are better prepared for life.”

Robinson accepted the award and said she could not have accomplished what she did without the support of the Educational Service Center and United Way.

“I can’t take credit for this, it was United Way and my office who supported the program,” Robinson said. “I thank you all for your support.”

The winner of the Resources Award was PPG Industries, located in Amelia. The award was received by Jessica Williamson, chemist, and Ryan Kingery, technical customer response at PPG. According to Gordon, PPG industries has had a very successful year under the direction of new CEO Tom Thompson, through the promotion of a Community Care Days project, which worked with Clermont Senior Services to provide interior and exterior painting, gutter, leaves, tree trimming, trash cleanup and car washing services for a senior homeowner in Milford.

For more information about the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, visit their website at www.uwgc.org.

MIDDLETOWN — One book turned to 100 books, turned to 1,000 books, and now to 10,000 books. Months before initial projections, the Dolly Parton Imagination Library will deliver its 10,000th book to a Middletown child during a ceremony Saturday, April 17, at the Middletown Public Library.

Middletown Community Foundation Executive Director T. Duane Gordon said he’s “thrilled with the response” the program has had in the community.

He said many parents have learned that reading to their children from birth is the “single most important activity” to prepare youngsters for school.

The first books were distributed to Middletown children in January 2009, and initial projections had them passing the 10,000-book milestone not until late 2010, Gordon said. By the end of this month more than 10,400 books will have been mailed to homes here.

The books, valued at $100,000, cost local sponsors about $25,000 through the partnership with Dolly Parton’s program, Gordon said.

To celebrate, the public is invited to see Middletown Postmaster Gregory Engel “deliver” the 10,000th book to a local newborn at 2 p.m. Saturday in the library’s lobby.

The child also will receive special gifts to mark the occasion, Gordon said, and Mayor Larry Mulligan also will deliver a proclamation from the city in honor of the milestone.

The ceremony will be followed by the library’s monthly children’s crafts and storytime event, which for April focuses on Library Mouse, who is expected to make a special appearance to celebrate the Imagination Library achievement.

Through the Imagination Library, any child younger than 5 who lives within the Middletown City School District may register to receive the free books.

Women Living United, an initiative of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati-Middletown Area, has adopted as its signature project the expansion of the program into the Edgewood, Madison and Monroe school districts and will host a fundraiser toward that goal next month.

Organizers hope to begin registering children in the three additional districts by year’s end.

The Imagination Brunch fundraiser is 10 a.m. Saturday, May 1, in the Johnston Hall Community Room at Miami University Middletown with motivational speaker Cea Cohen Elliot delivering the keynote address. Reservations are due by April 23 at (513) 705-1164. Tickets are $15 each, and several vendors will have tables offering items for sale to benefit the project.

They are, for example, less likely to join a
political party, read a newspaper or be members
of a civic organization.

But in one area, they outshine earlier
generations by far.

They volunteer.

Since the 1970s, the percentage of young
Americans involved in volunteer service has
increased from 22 percent to 35 percent, now
topping the national adult volunteer rate of 29
percent.

The trend may be nowhere more evident than in
Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, where
an estimated 35,000 elementary and high school
students volunteer, according to local service-
learning experts.

This weekend, at least 1,000 of them will
perform service projects throughout downtown
and take leadership training as part of the first-
ever National Youth Service Summit at the Duke
Energy Convention Center, downtown. The event
is sponsored by Children, Inc., UGIVE and the
Wilmington, Del.-based Jefferson Awards for
Public Service.

Organizers say there’s no better city to host the
summit.

“This region is designed and set up to be on the
real peak of this wave of service learning,” says
Jordan Huizenga, director of development for
Children, Inc., a Northern Kentucky nonprofit

that advocates for the needs of young children.

Consider:

In 2009, more than 19,500 Northern Kentucky
elementary and high school students took part in
service projects, and 2,900 teachers were trained
in service learning.

More than 2,000 Cincinnati Public Schools
students are involved in service through the
CincyAfterSchool program in 28 schools.

More than 74 Greater Cincinnati high schools are
part of the Mayerson Academy’s High School
Service-Learning Program. The program
intentionally mixes teams of suburban and urban
public schools and non-public schools to conduct
service projects.

In 2009, 178 high school students volunteered
for Youth Engaged in Service projects, part of the
United Way of Greater Cincinnati.

The trend continues into college.

Xavier University offers 10 four-year service
scholarships – worth $18,000 per year – to
freshmen each year. Five years ago, the
University of Cincinnati offered 45 courses with a
service component. Today, it offers 150.

MIDDLETOWN — Ann Munafo’s parents — Roy and Pat Holter — raised more than cattle, chickens and children on their farm in Meigs County.

By planting seeds early, the Holters, who still live on that farm, cultivated the importance of volunteering.

On Wednesday, April 14, Munafo — the oldest of four children — was honored for dedicating most of her adult life to the Middletown Area United Way by receiving the agency’s Volunteer of the Year award.

She credited her parents, both in their 80s, for instilling the value of volunteerism.

“We were taught that it was the right thing to do,” Munafo said after the meeting at the Middletown Senior Citizens Center. “It came natural, a part of our lives. We were taught to help people.”

Munafo has chaired the United Way’s fundraising efforts, served on the United Way of Greater Cincinnati’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee and chaired the Middletown Area Action Council in 2007 and 2008.

During the surprise announcement, as Munafo’s baby picture was shown on the video screen, she buried her face in her hands.

“They got me,” she said later.

When she accepted the award from Dave Wilson, chair of the United Way of Greater Cincinnati-Middletown Area, she simply walked off the stage.

“She’s never been speechless before,” Wilson told the crowd.

Munafo, accompanied by her husband, daughter and two grandchildren, said she was “shocked and overwhelmed” to receive the award, established in 1980 when James “Choppy” Saunders was chairman of the board.

The Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program began an enrollment blitz Monday. It runs until Friday, April 16. 

KCHIP covers dental visits, doctor visits, hospital and emergency room visits, prescription drugs, and other services.

Program coordinators say there are around 6,000 children in Northern Kentucky who are eligible for KCHIP.

“So many kids today access the emergency room unnecessarily when they don’t have insurance and come down with a sickness. So, by having a program called KCHIP, they can access their primary care doctor to avoid trips to the ER,” said Correy Eimer with the United Way of Greater Cincinnati.

For more information on KCHIP, visit their website at http://kidshealth.ky.gov or you can call (859)647-5523.

“It tugged at everybody,” said Elaine Garver, director of development at Hospice Care of Middletown and a member of the executive committee. “We knew there was a big need. We just said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ ”

The group, composed of various community leaders, will hold a fundraising Imagination Brunch on May 1.

Proceeds from the event, the first for the group, are earmarked for the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which will provide free books for children from birth to age 5 in the Edgewood, Madison and Monroe school districts.

Garver called the brunch “the first step in our journey.”

Right now, the Imagination Library is funded by the Middletown Community Foundation and serves students in the Middletown City School District. It’s time to expand the program to bordering communities, the women said.

Garver and Ginger Bruggeman, from the United Way of Greater Cincinnati-Middletown Area, said about $50,000 is required to fund the book program for two years.

They estimate the cost at $28 per child, per year.

Bruggeman said the group didn’t want to kick off the program until it had “a good base of dollars.”

They didn’t want to give books to any child until enough money was raised to assist children in all districts.

Garver said it’s exciting because the initial program will have measurable results. After several years, if kindergarten readiness scores increase, the book program will be successful, Garver said.

It’s fitting, Garver said, that children will benefit from the women’s group. It’s natural for women to help kids, she said.

“It’s part of our motherly instincts,” she said.

Bruggeman added: “It’s in our DNA.”

The group also hopes to donate gentle-used books to local prisons, courtrooms and the Butler County Board of Developmental Disabilities.

 Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.