February is Heating Up!

United Way

of Northwest Michigan

Volunteers Needed

The National Cherry Festival is managing the downtown events for this weekend's Winter Wow!fest. They still have volunteer opportunities available and would love for you to come on out and volunteer for this fun Festival. There are several volunteer positions you will see when you sign in to the Volunteer Registration Portal. To sign up to volunteer at Winter Wow!fest, please go to the Cherry Festival website and click on the Volunteer tab on the right hand side of the page. This will take you directly to the Volunteer Registration Portal. If you have never volunteered for the Cherry Festival, just fill out the brief volunteer registration form and then sign up for the volunteer position you wish to work.

Check off for United Way

Again this year we are asking you to donate a portion of your Michigan tax return to our community fund. To donate use form 4642 - line 11. Please be sure to "check off" for the United Way Fund. All proceeds will benefit people in our community. Giving has never been so easy.

Do you know other women who LIVE UNITED?

Please forward this email to other women in the community who would be interested in our efforts.

Alternative Spring Break Fundraisers

Please join United Way at La Senorita on Thursday, February 24^th for a FUNdraiser dinner! We are raising money to help ten NMC students join United Way for an Alternative Spring Break to New Orleans. While in New Orleans we will work together to rebuild homes for people whose homes were damaged in hurricane Katrina. For every person that comes in with a ticket La Senorita will give us 20% of their bill. All you have to do is print out the coupon below and take it with you when you go - it's so simple there is no reason not to go! BUT, if for some reason you cannot go and would still like to make a donation towards our trip please visit our website at www.unitedwaynwi.org and click on the Alternative Spring Break tab.

We will also be holding a Bake Sale on the NMC Campus on March 8 from noon to 5pm in the Welcome Center.

Giving Campaigns

We understand that you want to make a difference right here in your community and we want to help you do that. We also realize that each workplace is unique, and has unique ways to approach philanthropy.

The most economical way to give to United Way is through payroll deduction at work. A donation can be spread out over an entire year. If payroll deduction is not available to you at work, there are other ways you can invest in your community:

Make a personal gift
Become a volunteer
Serve on United Way committees
Make a corporate gift
Sponsor an event
Attend events

If you are interested in learning more about the workplace campaign and joining other local business leaders in workplace giving, please contact Michelle Krumm at 231-947-3200 Ext. 204.

2-1-1 Is Here!

This year February is 2/11 so how appropriate that our region now has access to 2-1-1 service. For those of you who do not know 2-1-1 is a call center staffed by social workers who have an exhaustive database of social services at their disposal. Callers can access all sorts of information about area services. In addition to basic information about locations, hours of operations and the like, the call center staff can help callers identify resources they may not have known of. Be able to help them navigate the social service system and even inform callers about what documentation to take. All of this will help make it easier for people to access the services they need.

For now the call center can be accessed by calling 877.211.5253 (LAKE) or online at call-211.org. We anticipate being able to access the call center by dialing 211 later this year.

If you are a representative of a service provider please go to the website and make sure your information is accurate. 211 is a great marketing tool for you, but unless your information is complete and accurate it may in fact be a disservice to those in need. Please check it today.



	Grant Process Begins The mission of this United Way calls us to do 2 things: first to efficiently raise resources (financial and volunteer) and then to effectively distribute them throughout the community. Ultimately we are expected to make sure these resources have maximum impact on our community. In short we are called to improve the lives of others. It is with a sense of duty to those in need that we announce this year's grant cycle. Over the coming months we will solicit applications from area human service non-profits then turn them over to our all volunteer grant review Citizen Action Teams (CAT). These volunteers will spend over 25 hours reading the grants and interviewing the applicants. As a group they will then determine who should be funded and at what level. We are proud of this process and hope each of you have faith in its ability to accomplish our mission. What follows is an abbreviated schedule for this year's grant cycle. If you have questions about this contact Michelle Gallagher. March 11 Critical Human Services grants are due by 5:00pm April 7 & 8 Interviews with Citizen Action Team May 6 Youth grants are due by 5:00pm June 2 & 3 Interviews with Citizen Action Team



	*Kudos Sara Lee!*
	Pictured lef to right: Dick Frederick, Bridget Lesher, John Kose, Paul Clark, Valda Shurkey, Mark Eckhoff, Steve Wade, and Cleve Morris. Sara Lee's Traverse City facility is proud to team up with the United Way of NW Michigan to provide for those less fortunate in our community. We have been tremendously successful in our local campaign, which has been employee run for the past twenty years. Even in this challenging economic environment we saw a 10% increase in our employee participation rate, receiving an unprecedented $51,089 in just two days. We were pleased to be able to give an additional donation of $0.40 for every dollar contributed by our employees, totaling $20,435.60 from the Sara Lee Foundation.

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