Assistance Needed
for 2009
Help-the-Homeless Walkathon
UCM is gearing up for the annual Fannie Mae Help-the-Homeless Walkathon. This event is one of our biggest annual fundraisers. We are seeking partners, youth scholarships, and walkers to participate. The goal is to double the number of people walking on UCM's behalf from 1,500 last year to 3,000 this year, so that UCM receives an additional $50,000 from Fannie Mae.
For more information on how you can help, please email
info@ucmagency.org or call (703) 768-7106 ext. 326.
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Do you shop at Safeway? Did you know that 1% of the total purchase price can automatically go to UCM-at no cost to you?
It is one of the most painless ways we know of to support a charity. Already supporting someone? UCM can be one of up to three charities that you designate!
To participate send your name, address, phone number, and Safeway card number to Niki Wanner at niki.wanner@ucmagency.org. Use your phone number at the store and don't have a Safeway card number? Simply call 1-877-723-3929 to get it and then email us.
Hey, those pennies can add up quickly. Thank you in advance for supporting UCM!
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UCM Serves More and More People as
Economic Downturn Continues
Pictured Above: Clients Wait in Line for Food. |
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Greetings!
As the unemployment rate remains high, demand for UCM programs continues to grow at an alarming rate. In July and August 2009 alone, UCM saw the following examples:
- 3,998 people for emergency food (47% of anticipated number for 12 months)
- 500 people for utility cut off prevention (139%of anticipated number for 12 months)
- 155 people for eviction prevention (86% of anticipated number for 12 months)
- 1168 people for basic needs assessment, counseling and referral (97% of anticipated number for 12 months)
- 31 individuals increasing financial literacy after classes (94% of anticipated number for 12 months)
While those numbers certainly tell an important part of this story, the work we do remains truly about each and every person, as each individual's story and circumstances are different. As you have been reading, organizations such as UCM are seeing people who have never needed help before, or who need it for longer periods of time because they are unemployed or underemployed, sometimes losing one or more of the multiple jobs they were working to support themselves and their families.
Like many nonprofits across the country, UCM has cut expenses to the bone in an effort to keep up with the rising demand for our services. We are very grateful that the support of so many individuals, businesses, faith communities, foundations, civic groups, and government agencies (especially Fairfax County) has allowed us to meet our community's rising needs. But there is no getting around the fact that resources are increasingly scarce. Continued, sustainable support is more important now than ever before. Thank you for all that you do for UCM and the people we serve. Your support allows us to change each individual's story for the better, one step at a time.
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 "Bike Doctor" Donates Reconditioned Bikes to
Youth in Need 
Pictured Above: Participants of UCM's Youth Empowerment Leadership Program Receive Donated Bikes
On August 12, Charles Jones (aka the "Bike Doctor") and Richard Peterson, a member of the Mt. Vernon Kiwanis Club, delivered 27 reconditioned bikes to youth in UCM's Youth Empowerment and Leadership Program (YELP). Each bike came personalized with a name tag for its new owner.
"The kids were so excited, and it was a very special moment," recalls YELP Senior Counselor, Sandra Medrano. Sandra selected which members of the program would receive bikes based on their level of positive participation, as well as need. The bikes were delivered to the center on a game day as a surprise to the kids. "Now we see them riding bikes everywhere. They ride down to our tutoring sessions with their backpacks!"
The Bike Doctor began reconditioning bikes in 2006. He saw an ad for people to donate used bikes to children in Africa and thought, "There are kids here that need bikes." To date, the Bike Doctor has reconditioned 425 bikes and hand-delivered them to children, teens and adults in Fairfax County.
According to Mr. Jones, reconditioning bicycles is truly a community effort. Mr. Jones collects old bicycles and parts from individual donors in the community, the police station, and Spokes Bicycle shop in Belle View. He then repairs each bike and brings it up to safety standards. Surprisingly, he says the most difficult part of the operation is finding agencies that will identify youth and adults to whom to give the bikes.
At UCM, there is no shortage of need. "UCM was the first place to give us names of people who needed bikes, about three years ago," says the Bike Doctor. "We want to make sure that bikes aren't just given to organizations, but that they go directly to members of the community."
Thank you, Mr. Jones, for making a very special difference for so many children and youth with whom UCM works.
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Back-to-School Drive Provides Backpacks to
Over 822 School Aged Children
Pictured Above: Photo of Volunteers Courtesy of the Mount Vernon Gazette.
During the last week of August, UCM was able to provide over 822 backpacks to students in Fairfax County who were returning to school.
The annual Back-to-School drive is a monumental community effort. This year, 40 volunteers spent over 282 hours organizing donated supplies and filling each backpack with grade appropriate items. UCM's Volunteer & Community Relations Coordinator, Betsy Damitz, spear-headed the effort, collecting school supplies and recruiting and supervising volunteers.
"Betsy has a way with volunteers that brings out the best in all of us," says Pat Goode, who volunteers with UCM and has worked with Betsy on the Back-to-School drive for the past two years. "I volunteer because so many children in our community would be without these supplies if we did not provide them."
Thank you to everyone who helped make this drive so successful! Your kindness enabled hundreds of students in our community to return to school this year prepared for success. | |
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AN ORGANIZATION YOU CAN TRUST
At UCM, $.89 of every dollar you donate goes directly to programs that help people in need. Because how we use your money is as important to us as it is to you.
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