A marching band played and cheerleaders rooted as United Way volunteers gathered Wednesday to hear the "half time" report of the annual United Way fund-raising campaign for the greater Salt Lake area.
To date, the agency has received pledges and donations totaling $1,744,466, 32.8 percent of the $5,312,000 goal. Companies that have completed their campaigns are averaging a 14 percent increase over last year."Each day we get wonderful news about our progress," said campaign Chairman Floyd A. Petersen, managing partner for Deloitte Haskins and Sells. "Our numbers will really snowball through November. The momentum now is just tremendous."
Steve Brown, KTVX sports director, served as master of ceremonies for the football-theme gathering at the Salt Lake Hilton. More than 250 volunteers from member agencies and sponsoring corporations gathered for lunch and to listen to the reports of the five committees responsible for fund raising.
The money is used to support 112 programs in 57 local health and human service agencies. In January, citizen panels will meet and begin visiting applicant agencies prior to determining how money will be allocated.
Funding to programs is distributed so that the economically disadvantaged receive 20 percent of funds; the physically ill receive 19 percent; handicapped services get 4 percent, emotionally troubled, 30 percent; youth character development and socialization 12 percent and other programs get 15 percent of total allocations.
Max Lauderdale, administrator of St. Mark's Hospital, said that the public services division has already raised $57,166 (8.9 percent) of its goal for the year. The geographic division, chaired by Kirk Nelson, assistant vice president and director of external affairs at US WEST Communications, said his group has raised $264,534 (37.3 percent).
The professional division, chaired by Roger Dean, vice president of First Security Bank, has reached $55,553 (29.2 percent) of its goal, while the major firms division has pledges and collections for 37.6 percent ($1,331,435). Peterson said that the major firms division, chaired this year by Frederic "Fritz" D. Reed, executive vice president of Utah Power and Light Co., raised about 67 percent of the total funding last year. The direct mail section has brought in 15.2 percent of its goal.
This year, the United Way has 173 Golden Spike Club members. Members are people who contribute at least $1,000 to the campaign.
IBM provided weeklong training this year for the executives, who participate "on loan" from their companies for 12 weeks during the fund-raising effort. And KTVX received special thanks for creating an 11-minute local video to help introduce people to the United Way during fund-raising efforts.
The extra football season touch was added by music from the 130-member Kennedy Junior High marching band and cheerleaders from the University of Utah. The campaign is scheduled to wrap up Dec. 14, although it usually takes several weeks after that before all the money is collected.