9,500 Votes Counted: Congrats to our volunteers of the year!

Greetings!

We'd like to thank everyone who voted for the 2013 Volunteers of the Year. We counted more than 9,500 votes! Wow. That's 7,500 more than were cast in 2012!

Congratulations to all finalists! You are probably wondering who received the most votes. And the winners are...

Outstanding Youth Volunteer 2013: Isaac Ipsan. (Read more about him here.)

Outstanding Business Volunteer 2013: ImOn Communications (Read more here.)

Outstanding Senior Volunteer 2013: Mike Boyle. (Read more here.)

Outstanding Group Volunteer Award 2013: "The Black Sandpaper" Crew. (Read more here.)

Outstanding Adult Volunteer 2013: Leanne Loehr (Read more here.)

Congratulations to the honorees and thank you!

Sue Driscoll
United Way Volunteer Engagement Manager

Join us for RSVP: 55+ Initiative Breakfast

United Way of East Central Iowa's RSVP: 55+ Initiative is proud to be kicking off Older American's Month with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program Annual Appreciation Breakfast. There's still time to register for the May 6 event. Click here.

May is a time for celebration of older Americans; we will be featuring and celebrating some of the great work that our RSVP: 55+ Initiative Volunteers do for our community throughout the month.

RSVP: 55+ Initiative Volunteers provide 62,824.50 hours to almost 100 non-profit agencies throughout Linn and Jones counties. United Way sees volunteerism as another way to invest in our community. Volunteers contributed almost 7500 hours supporting educating the youth of our community, over 17,500 hours supporting the health of seniors, children and low income individuals, and over 8,000 hours to improve the financial stability of individuals and families in our community.

Click here to learn more about United Way's RSVP: 55+ Initiative and how community members' age 55 or better can invest in our community through volunteerism.

Virtual Volunteer Fair a Success

We held our first Virtual Volunteer Fair on April 9.

You can still check it out here.

The event was promoted beforehand on our Facebook page, emails were sent to companies and agencies, an ad was placed on TheGazette.com and we appeared on KGAN.

As you will see from the statistics below, the event was a success when compared to physical volunteer fairs.

For more go here.

Day of Caring 2013 Personal Care Items Drive

As part of Day of Caring on May 9, United Way will hold a Personal Care Items drive. We will collect personal hygiene items to donate to United Way partners - ASAC, Foundation 2 and the Catherine McAuley Center.

Many of the clients who come to stay at these agencies don't have the items they need to take care of their most basic needs. Most Americans take for granted that they have a toothbrush or soap, but imagine if you didn't.

We will have a bath tub in front of the Human Services Campus, 317 7th Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids, and people can stop by and help us fill the tub with personal hygiene items.