The campaign took a big jump towards reaching our $4 million goal this past week, crossing the $3 million dollar mark and nearly reaching $3.5 million! A big thank you to the following Employee Campaign Coordinators and their companies who have successfully wrapped up their campaigns since the last newsletter:

Ads & Art

     Denny Gilgenbach

Alvin E. Benike, Inc.

     Dave Young

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

Boys and Girls Club of Rochester

     Ewell Bryant

City of Rochester

     Audrey Betcher, Jim Loeher and Mark Kotschevar

Civic League Day Nursery

     Aynsley Allert

Crenlo LLC

     Donna Koehler

Davies Printing

     Denny Gilgenbach

Dunlap & Seeger PA

     Jodi Steinkamp

Eventis

     Matthew Logelin

Family Service Rochester

     Janice Draxler

IBM

     Kari Jadin and Mike Prochaska

KTTC Television Inc

     Allen Weise

Southeast Service Cooperative

     Dale Walston

Our thanks and appreciation to the Employee Campaign Coordinators, employees and staff of these organizations for their partnership.

Gift Giving is a Snap!

Don't buy an ugly holiday sweater; give a gift that counts! This holiday season, make a donation to United Way of Olmsted County in honor of your friends, coworkers and family members. Your donation includes a holiday card to the honoree and can be mailed or you can pick it up! Call 507-287-2000 and ask for a Resource Development team member!

United Way has partnered with several generous companies to create gifts that give back this holiday season. Resources generated will further United Way's work to create opportunities for a better life for all people by focusing on education, income and health.

• More than 453 photographers at Microsoft Corporation gave their time, talent and photographs to create Explore | Photographers Microsoft Book, a 300+ page collection of images taken worldwide in support of the annual GIVE campaign. Each photo in the book is accompanied by a narrative written by the photographer as well as technical information which helps the reader learn how the photograph was taken. All proceeds from the sale of the book, plus a Microsoft match on the sales and match on employee volunteer hours, will be donated to United Way Worldwide. To date, the photo book has raised nearly $200,000. Purchase your copy today.
• United Way and American Express have teamed up once again for the United Way Gift Card by American Express. For each card purchased, American Express will donate the $3.95 purchase charge to support United Way.
• GEis donating 2% of all GE Online Outlet Store appliance sales at GEoutletstore.com to United Way.
• Through Tickets-for-Charity®, where music fans have year-round access to concerts seats-you can get tickets to great concerts for the same or better price found elsewhere-while benefiting United Way and other charities that fans choose at checkout. Enjoy performances from Carrie Underwood and Matchbox Twenty to Ray LaMontagne and more.

Save the DATE

Celebration of Caring and Giving

Please save the date - Tuesday, February 19, 2013 will be the day for our annual Celebration of Caring and Giving event. We hope to see all of our Employee Campaign Coordinators and business and organization represented!

More details to follow - WATCH FOR IT!

Campaign TIP of the We 

For most of us, December is a very busy month.... at work and in our personal lives. Wrapping up your United Way campaign and delivering your campaign envelopes to our office may be one thing that keeps sliding to the bottom of your "to-do" list each day. Let us make it easy for you! Simply call the United Way office at 287-2000 and we will arrange for one of our staff members to come and pick-up your campaign envelopes. We are happy to do it!

Remember, we can also do a partial pick-up if you prefer not to have cash or checks on hand until the completion of your campaign and your co-workers will appreciate having those checks checked off their checkbook register.