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Welcome to our first on-line Newsletter!
I'd like to acknowledge our Board of Directors -caring, community-minded individuals, willing to give their time and expertise to promote the common good of the community. The Board chose to promote the common good by distributing school supplies to over 650 students for the third annual Stuff the Bus program. It is important for students to have the necessary school supplies to start the school year out right. We partnered with the Superior Housing Authority, the Superior School District, Target, and Walmart to make this program possible. We send a special thanks to the volunteers who helped pick-up, sort, and deliver the supplies.
Our 2009 - 2010 Campaign is Co-Chaired by Ann Charbonneau (WITC) and Deb Williams (Duluth News Tribune). KUWS and John Munson assisted us with our Virtual Kick-off during the week of September 14th with several taped 'success' stories and a live interview. Thank you John for your time, creativity, and patience.
Campaign packets are out and workplace campaigns have begun! Two teams from the Youth Leadership Group participated in our "Business Blitz." Following a brief training teams visited over 150 local businesses. They raised awareness, money and in-kind donations, thanks to Dave Minor (Chamber) and Charlie Glazman (WITC) for helping to make it happen.
Our community impact initiatives are - Kindergarten Readiness/Early Childhood Literacy, Homelessness, and Teen Delinquency. The Board approved start-up funding for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library program which supports Early Childhood Literacy. 650 eligible children, newborn to five years old, residing in Douglas County are enrolled to receive a free, age-appropriate book mailed to their home monthly. We encourage parents to spend time instilling a love of books and reading to their children. United Way is striving to understand and learn more about the homeless population in our community. We are also partnering with others to study the teen delinquency problem. It is important to work together, to partner and collaborate with other agencies, to develop strategies to make the greatest impact. One agency, one person, can not solve the world problems; together, with one another's help, we might have a better understanding of the challenges our community is facing. LIVE, ADVOCATE, VOLUNTEER.....together we can move mountains!
Luann LaValley
United Way Board Chair
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Executive Committee
President Vice President
Luann LaValley Chad Matushak
Secretary/Treasurer
Dave Minor
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Campaign Co-Chairs
Ann Charbonneau & Debbie Williams
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Kindergarten Readiness/Early Childhood Literacy
47% of females and males in prison in Wisconsin lack either a high school diploma or equivalent
49% read below the ninth grade levelIf we can impact the literacy of children today, we hope to change those statistics in the future. We begin by learning to read and end by reading to learn.
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Homelessness
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A group of community members in Superior is helping to raise awareness to those without a place to lay their head.
A Night Without a Home is a benefit for Harbor Houses,
Solid Rock, CASDA, &
Society of
St. Vincent de Paul
'A Night Without A Home' was a great success.....
Generous donations were able to fill an entire semi with clothing and food!
Throughout the night volunteers collected donations and funds to support area charities that serve this population.
-A total of $4,500 donations received (and coming!)
An overwhelming amount of volunteers as well as an amazingly generous business community helped to make this event a success and helped to spread awareness for the homeless throughout the community.
We need to continue to educate the community on the needs of the homeless people in Douglas County.
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Teen Delinquency
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Attendance rates for the total county school population averages 93.8%, truancy rates vary from 5.9%-18% representing 957 students.
8th and 9th grade have the highest rates of suspension.
Community representatives are meeting to address these issues.
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