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United Way recipients thankful
Nov 29, 2009 (Stillwater NewsPress - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
With the holiday season here, several individuals in the Stillwater community are expressing their thankfulness for the services they receive from United Way affiliated agencies.
United Way touches thousands of people through its 24 local recipient agencies. Representatives said that one out of every three Stillwater area citizens will use a United Way funded service at some point in their lives.
"I think everyone who brings my meal is an angel," Mobile Meals recipient Dorothy Webb said. "I never realized how much the contact meant. The food is good and they help me to keep my diabetes in check because if I'm left on my own I tend to eat what ever I have handy. Plus it is harder for me to shop because I don't drive anymore. I look forward to seeing all my volunteers."
Mobile Meals serves individuals in the community who need meals delivered to their homes on a regular basis. Mobile Meals relies on the United Way to provide food to clients. Without these services, some clients would not be able to feed themselves because of financial difficulties.
Another individual who is thankful for United Way affiliated agencies in Stillwater is Lisa Morgan.
"I am a single mother of three boys and their father is not consistently involved in their lives," the Big Brother Big Sisters service recipient said. "All of our family lives 500 miles away, and I joined BBBS so that my boys could have a male role model to look up to, who was consistent. BBBS is great because they give children who do not have older siblings or children who come from broken homes the opportunity to have a special person they can count on to have fun with."
Without donations to the United Way, community service agencies like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Mobile Meals would not be able to provide these services to the Stillwater community.
"We are very thankful for the Stillwater United Way Agency," Mobile Meals Executive Director Carolyn Hunger said. "Without United Way funding and donations directly from the community, we would have to discontinue serving about one-third of our clients because they are not able to pay for their meals. We are also thankful for the United Way because of what they do for the entire community. All you have to do is look at the agencies they serve and imagine our town without them."
Stillwater Area United Way Executive Director Sheri Carter said, "The Stillwater Area United Way has a huge responsibility to the agencies that are providing these wonderful services. It is our job to raise the funds so they can concentrate on providing the services. We are so thankful to our donors who generously give to the United Way campaign so that we can ensure all 24 helping partner agencies have the funds they need to continue to touch the lives of our children, youth, elderly and those in need."
This year's Stillwater Area United Way $800,000 campaign is 70 percent fulfilled and needs $240,000 to reach goal and provide adequate funding to local agencies.
"We as a board always hope to meet our campaign goal by Thanksgiving," board member Jordan Ihrig said. "Often this has to be extended to give our community more time to reach our goal. We feel confident that the Stillwater area will dig deep to raise the needed funds this year to help our friends and neighbors in need."
For more information about Stillwater Area United Way or how to contribute, visit www.stillwaterunitedway.org or call 377-2161.
To see more of the Stillwater NewsPress or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.stillwater-newspress.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Stillwater NewsPress,
Okla. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
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