Executive Director's Message

LIVE UNITED™ - The Economy

10/8/2008

For the past six months, this space has been used to explain and to expound LIVE UNITED™ . This United Way exists to make positive and lasting changes in the way we live in Meriden and Wallingford. Because prosperity and growth are the ways to do this in this larger community, then LIVE UNITED™ must bring lasting prosperity and growth for all of us.

However the events of the last few weeks, mostly in the area of financial markets and the inevitable repercussions, have made LIVE UNITED™ more than a slogan and learning device. In the next year or more, how we LIVE UNITED™ will teach us a level of sharing we could not predict even a few weeks ago. Politics aside, we will be a changed community; we will have to be a changed community in order for all of us to prosper.

Generally, people seem to want only the news that confirms or reaffirms what we already know and believe. We tend to want to tune out anything else. Change is an easy concept as long as it won’t change me from my comfort level. Well, the last few weeks have rewritten that idea. The next year will reshape a great deal of what we believe to be true. That may mean changes, some unwelcome and many uncomfortable, in all of our lives.

One of those first changes is in how we react to our Community Campaign. Someone once described charity as not simply giving something to another who has a lack but rather as sharing something with another when we may need it ourselves. We are now living in a time when we are sharing some of the same concerns and hardships as others and yet we are still being asked to give and to LIVE UNITED™. This is not the time to pass on the chance to donate to the community campaign. The programs that we promised last spring to fund still have those same seniors who need service, still open their doors to children eager to learn and still need support so that all families have a chance at prosperity, even if it is a diminished version of it.

This community’s United Way believes that we can all together make the changes that will benefit everyone. No one left out. This United Way, even in the face of a strained economy, believes that more than ever, the programs which our donors have told us are important should still be funded. With your support, this United Way can counteract the damages of this economy. Previous columns have gone on about Ask. Thank. Inform. Education. Income. Health. Give. Advocate. Volunteer. As you drive under our banner in Wallingford or pass our sign in downtown Meriden, think about what it reminds us to do. Part of our shared responsibility is knowing that even though we are all worried, all paying higher amounts for things we need, for some of us, we still have the chance to share a few dollars each week so that someone else’s worry is reduced. We should not miss that opportunity by waiting.

This economy will not be fixed by any one thing; there is no election or bailout or stimulus package that will make it go away easily. Waiting for news of those things will only make us lose time when we should be going about what we, deep down, know we must do. LIVE UNITED™

Call us at 203-235-4403 and join us to LIVE UNITED™.

9/1/2008
LIVE UNITED™ - Campaign Kickoff!
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11/1/2008
LIVE UNITED™ - Ask. Thank. Inform. Part II
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